What isn’t clear to me is how the poem is written in a very soft cadence with subdued and gentle wording, yet the topics being discussed are fairly vulgar. Why did Pope choose to write such a soothing poem about a […]

What isn’t clear to me here is how Pope often uses alliteration towards the ends of the lines. An example is “hover’d o’er her head” here in line 22. It seems to interact with the mock-heroic, iambic pentameter, […]

Although it occurs throughout the poem, this technique is extremely evident in this stanza. Montagu uses iambic pentameter and heroic couplets. The heroic couplets allow for a full thought to be self-contained […]

Line 12 contains a metaphor for Flavia’s life changing. After contracting small-pox, not only did her appearance change, but so did her entire life. In line 2 she wonders, “Thus breath’d the anguish of a wounded […]

[In short, I behaved myself so unaccountably, that they were all of the captain’s opinion when he first saw me, and concluded I had lost my wits] Again, a mention of madness and irrationality. Along with the f […]

[The captain was very well satisfied with this plain relation I had given him] Was the captain truly trusting of Gulliver’s story? Or was Gulliver just convinced he was believed as this is his own perspective? […]

[thought I was mad] This relates to madness and irrationality. Gulliver’s strange behavior is being looked at by two perspectives at once: the English/European human and the Brobdingnag giant. Through an […]

[I was equally confounded] Here, Gulliver is struggling with his identity. Is he a human or a giant? What is a human? How should they be regarded?

[“If there be any body below, let them speak.” I answered, “I was an Englishman, drawn by ill fortune into the greatest calamity that ever any creature underwent, and begged, by all that was moving, to be deliv […]

[pleasure ] I find it interesting how Gulliver began the book discussing his situation and treatment with disgust and disdain. Now he’s found comfort, making ‘orders,’ and has pleasure in his nearly three year […]

[the nobility often contending for power, the people for liberty, and the king for absolute dominion.] This mirrors a common source of strife and violence in England.

Regarding the entire paragraph: Swift is being satirical. Aspects of a well rounded society are being mentioned with arts, histories, sciences, mathematics, etc. being named. These different studies allow for a […]

[whereof in Europe we can have no conception, let slip an opportunity put into his hands that would have made him absolute master of the lives, the liberties, and the fortunes of his people!] Gulliver is […]

[that most prevail in other nations: the want of which knowledge will ever produce many prejudices, and a certain narrowness of thinking, from which we, and the politer countries of Europe, are wholly […]

[It was in vain to discover my resentments, which were always turned into ridicule; and I was forced to rest with patience, while my noble and beloved country was so injuriously treated.] This is ironic as […]

[entertainment ] The mention of entertainment is interesting. So far we haven’t seen any form of entertainment in this society except for Gulliver himself. This society finding Gulliver so entertaining and how […]

[what questions he intended to ask me.] Although parts of this situation and what’s being discussed have problems and moral qualms, there’s still a conversation happening between Gulliver and the King. The two […]

[plantations in America] If this is referencing slavery in the Americas perpetrated and perpetuated by the English, Gulliver only mentions it and doesn’t comment on it. It’s interesting that he would bring up […]

[Demosthenes or Cicero] Background information: Demosthenes—Born 384 BC in Athens, Greece. He was a Greek statesman and orator in Athens and focused on Athenian intellectual ideas, politics, and culture of […]

[that the contempt he discovered towards Europe, and the rest of the world, did not seem answerable to those excellent qualities of mind that he was master of;] The King’s views and opinions are originally […]