Author Introduction-
Jonathan Swift was born in Ireland in 1667. His earliest works were satire, like A tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books, published in 1704. Swift, later on, became a priest in the Church of Ireland. Due to his numerous trip to England, he formed many literary friendships and wrote satires and pamphlets for the Tory cause in England.
His works from the 1720s are mostly attacking England's policies towards Ireland. Such as in the Drapier's letters and A Modest Proposal. His most famous work, the satirical fiction Gulliver's Travels (1726), also belongs to the same period.
Swift's best-known poems are from the 1730s, among them "Strephon and Chloe", "A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed", and "The Lady's Dressing Room".
He lived the rest of his life in Ireland comfortably.
The Structure Of The Poem-
"The Beautiful Nymph Going to Bed" is structured as a rhymed couplet, meaning that each stanza consists of two lines of verse that rhyme. The poem has a consistent rhyme scheme of AABBCCDD and so on, with the rhyming pattern repeated throughout the poem.
In terms of its overall structure, the poem follows the progression of a beautiful nymph as she prepares for bed, with each couplet describing a different step in her beauty routine. The poem begins with the nymph undressing and continues through various activities such as brushing her hair, washing her face, and so on. The poem concludes with the nymph finally getting into bed and falling asleep.
The poem's structure contributes to its satirical tone, as the speaker describes the nymph's activities in an exaggerated, over-the-top manner, treating her simple beauty routine as if it were a heroic quest. The rhymed couplet form adds to the mock-heroic tone of the poem, mimicking the structure of an epic poem.
The Theme Of The Poem-
These poems have an unusual and striking theme where women are not portrayed as delicate beauty but are rather stripped away from the cosmetics and finery so that the ugliness and the truth behind their beauty come out. Many would interpret this as his misogynistic view, but it can also be viewed as religious and moral warnings against human pride. Swift contrasts himself with the over-idealization of women's beauty in the pastoral and other kinds of poetry, widely prevalent in those days.
In the poem "A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed", Swift has an ambivalent attitude towards the central character, Corinna. Though he understood the plight of the poor was not their fault, his sympathy for them was mixed with disgust. His attitude towards her is a mixture of practical charity and satirical criticism.
In her personal life, too, Swift had a close relationship with his former pupil, Stella, and frequently praised her for her companionship. He also believed in women's education; hence labelling him as a misogynist straightaway is not the correct option.
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A Beautiful Young Nymph Going To Bed (line-by-line analysis)-
Corinna, pride of Drury-Lane
For whom no shepherd sighs in vain;
Never did Covent Garden boast
So bright a battered, strolling toast;
The poet here refers to Corinna as the pride of Drury-Lane, a street in London famous for theatrical works and also the most dilapidated slum of London at that time, notorious for prostitutes. The line is actually satire, and Swift means the complete opposite. That is, Corinna, a prostitute, is not the pride, or there is nothing to be proud of about her.
Poet says that no Shepherd sighs in vain for her. Here, the poet is referring to pastoral poetry where, as I have explained in the theme, women were overly idealized. The poet articulates that no one is writing such poems for Corinna. One other speculation can be made as Corinna was also a beautiful poet in ancient Greek.
Covent Garden is a luxurious and very posh locality in the West of London. Swift again implies satire that the Covent Garden never boasted or had a person who is battered and strolling toast, famous beauty among the prostitutes. A person who is hit and in terrible shape.
No drunken rake to pick her up,
No cellar where on tick to sup;
There is no drunken rake, i.e., a fashionable drunk flirt willing to pick Corinna up and use his flirtatious tricks on her. The last line of this stanza refers to a tavern where Corinna could purchase dinner instead of making it. Here Swift says that there Corinna cannot buy dinner on credit at a "Cellar where on Tick to sup," as apparently, the money she makes is only enough for her living quarters.
Returning at the midnight hour;
Four stories climbing to her bow'r;
Then, seated on a three-legged chair,
Takes off her artificial hair:
Corinna returns from her work as a prostitute at midnight. She has to climb f ur stories to reach her bow'r or bedroom. There is a broken three-legged chair in her room. Corinna sits there and starts to take off her artificial beauty piece by piece. She starts with her hair and takes it off.
Now, picking out a crystal eye,
She wipes it clean, and lays it by.
Her eyebrows from a mouse's hide,
Stuck on with art on either side,
Pulls off with care, and first displays 'em,
Then in a playbook smoothly lays 'em.
Now dexterously her plumpers draws,
That serve to fill her hollow jaws.
Swift here vividly describes how Corinna unplugs all her artificial and fake ornaments and attachments from her body. After her hair, Corinna picks out her fake crystal eye, wipes it clean and lays it by.
Then she pulls off her artificial eyebrows dextrously (in a skilful way) and shelf them in a playbook. The eyebrows are made from a mouse's hide (Women in Georgian times used mouse skin to make eyebrows fuller.)
Further, Corinna removes plumper draws from her jaws which are filled to make them fuller. It implies that she has hollow jaws.
Untwists a wire; and from her gums
A set of teeth completely comes.
Pulls out the rags contrived to prop
Her flabby dugs and down they drop.
Proceeding on, the lovely goddess
Unlaces next her steel-ribbed bodice;
Which, by the operator's skill,
Press down the lumps, the hollows fill,
Up goes her hand, and off she slips
The bolsters that supply her hips.
Corinna next untwists a wire from her gums, and her fake teeth come out. She then pulls out the rags, which act as a prop to make her breasts firmer. Swift points out that her flab dugs (a derogatory term for breasts) drop-down as she removes the rags.
Swift then inserts a line filled with sarcasm and satire -Proceeding on, the lovely goddess, Corinna, then unlaces her steel ribbed bodice - a corset, an instrument to make her body shaped. She then slips the bolsters (cushions filled with cotton) that were supplying her hips, i.e., making them appear more firm and thick.
With gentlest touch, she next explores
Her shankers, issues, running sores,
Effects of many a sad disaster;
And then to each applies a plaister.
But must, before she goes to bed,
Rub off the dawbs of white and red;
And smooth the furrows in her front
With greasy paper stuck upon't.
After removing all her artificial implants, Corinna now explores her skin and body, which is ridden with shankers (ulcers resulting from STDs), sores and pus-filled wounds resulting from sad disasters. Corinna might have been physically abused and tortured by her customers.
The nymph then applies a plaster on each of her wounds. She rubs off the pus and blood, and before going to bed, she uses a greasy paper to smoothen the furrows (wrinkles) on her forehead.
She takes a bolus ere she sleeps;
And then between two blankets creeps.
With pains of love tormented lies;
Or if she chance to close her eyes,
Of Bridewell and the Computer dreams,
And feels the lash, and faintly screams;
Or, by a faithless bully drawn,
At some hedge-tavern lies in pawn;
Or to Jamaica seems transported,
Alone, and by no planter courted;
Or, near Fleet-Ditch's oozy brinks,
Surrounded with a hundred stinks,
Corinna finally goes to bed to sleep after taking a huge soft pill and covering herself with two blankets slowly. Nevertheless, as she loses her eyes, all her pains and suffering come up. The love tor ented lies which gave her pain—the dreams of Bridgewell and Compterr, both prisons for prostitutes and debots. Corinna feels the lash and screams, which implies that she might have been locked up previously.
The lashes and screams might also be from a bully or a pimp who controls prostitutes, and Corinna sees herself at some tavern lying as a pawn.
She also gets chilling dreams and is transported back to Jamaica as a slave in some plantation work. Alternatively, maybe near some Fleet-Ditch (sewer and drainage ditch) surrounded by stinks.
Belated, seems on watch to lie,
And snap some cully passing by;
Or, struck with fear, her fancy runs
On watchmen, constables and duns,
From whom she meets with frequent rubs;
But, never from religious clubs;
Whose favor she is sure to find,
Because she pays 'em all in kind.
Sleep is not easy to come for Corinna as her mind is tormented by lies.
She is struck with fear from guards, constables and debt collectors who give her frequent rubs, harass her and make her living difficult,
Swift shows the irony here that she never gets those rubs from religious clubs, and they constantly give her favours because she pays them in kind, Implying that she gives sexual favours to the religious clubs the most.
Corinna wakes. A dreadful sight!
Behold the ruins of the night!
A wicked rat her plaster stole,
Half eat, and dragged it to his hole.
The crystal eye, alas, was missed;
And puss had on her plumpers pissed.
A pigeon picked her issue-peas;
And Shock her tresses filled with fleas.
After these dreadful thoughts and dreams, Corinna wakes up at a dreadful sight and witnesses the ruins of the night. A rat has half-eaten her plaster stole and dragged the other half to his hole. Her crystal eye was also missing, and there was pus on her plumpers.
A pigeon has picked her issue-peas. (Dried peas kept inside cuts and wounds to drain the pus out from the sores of STDs.) Her artificial tresses or long hair is filled with fleas.
The poet invokes images of disgust more than sympathy— a typical feature of Swift's poetry.
The nymph, tho' in this mangled plight,
Must ev'ry morn her limbs unite.
But how shall I describe her arts
To recollect the scattered parts?
Or shew the anguish, toil, and pain,
Of gath'ring up herself again?
The bashful muse will never bear
In such a scene to interfere.
Corinna in the morning dizened,
Who sees, will spew; who smells, be poison'd.
The last section of the poem invokes the image of the nymph and conflates it with the prostitute, and problematizes the poet's attitude of dismissive contempt for the prostitute. "Mangled Plight" would suggest the idea of ruin imposed on the woman and the repeated attempt to reconstruct herself to meet the stereotype of women as commodities.
The poet is amused at Corinna's art of recollecting the scattered parts again and getting ready for another day. The poet is astonished that Corinna shows the anguish, toil, and pain of gathering herself bits by bits again.
The poet's helplessness in empathizing with the nymph's plight shifts the tone from ridicule and disgust to one another concern. Swift criticizes conventional poetry, which never interferes with topics like this. It refrains from touching sensitive subjects, and Corinna, ready to stack her clothes in the morning, whose actual sight is so lowly and disgusting that whoever sees her will vomit and whoever smells her will be poisoned.
Frequently Asked Questions -
The poem is a mock-heroic description of a beautiful woman preparing for bed, making fun of the elaborate beauty routines of the time. The speaker lists all the steps the nymph takes to make herself ready for bed, including removing her makeup, brushing her hair, and painting a picture of a comically exaggerated beauty regimen.
The poem was written by Jonathan Swift, an Irish satirist and writer who lived from 1667 to 1745.
The tone of the poem is satirical and mocking. Swift uses hyperbole and irony to make fun of the beauty rituals of the time and to criticize the idea of romantic love.
The poem is considered a mock-heroic poem because it uses the conventions of the epic poem to satirize a trivial subject. In this case, the subject is a woman's beauty routine, which is treated as if it were a heroic quest.
The rhyme scheme of the poem is AABBCCDD, and so on.
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