However accurate Andrew Marvell's association with the metaphysical poets, it is unfortunate that the singular writer – so singularly spiteful, winning, allusive, sardonic – should share a limited codified space with anyone else, even if his spacemates include such luminaries as John Donne, Georg
Ireland. Ire. Irony. This euphonious trio of words explains the humor of Jonathan Swift; though he reportedly bore the most dour countenance in history, his wit could make readers laugh through his bile. Swift's "Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burde