Poetry News

“Not to be peevish or morose, or suspicious”: Jonathan Swift’s Resolutions

By Harriet Staff

Check out this list of note, penned by Jonathan Swift in 1699. Here’s a taste:

Not to marry a young Woman.
Not to keep young Company unless they reely desire it.
Not to be peevish or morose, or suspicious.
Not to scorn present Ways, or Wits, or Fashions, or Men, or War, &c.
Not to be fond of Children, or let them come near me hardly.
Not to tell the same story over and over to the same People.

Posted in Poetry News on Tuesday, March 6th, 2012 by Harriet Staff.