Swift revisited

by Denis Donoghue

'That Kingdom he hath left his Debtor'; so Jonathan Swift wrote of himself in the Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift (1731). In 1967, three hundred years after his birth, Irishmen took the occasion to acknowledge their debt to Swift, even though it was now too late to offer payment or patronage. At this stage, the only possible acknowledgement is a lively sense of Swift's achievement, its nature and range. But Swift has left many kingdoms his debtors; wherever there are readers of Gulliver's Travels the Tale of a Tub, the poems, pamphlets, letters, the Journal to Stella.

89 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968