The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume 2

Volume 2 of Jonathan Swift's poetic works opens with 'Cadenus and Vanessa,' one of the most psychologically complex love poems in English: a sustained meditation on the tangle of desire, vanity, and intellectual rivalry between an aging scholar and his brilliant young student. Swift reverses his name to create 'Cadenus' (Dean) and casts Esther Vanhomrigh as 'Vanessa,' a goddess of youthful charm confronting the 'follies of both genders.' What begins as playful courtly allegory becomes something far sharper: an excavation of how love collides with pride, how wisdom ages while beauty does not. The surrounding poems extend this probe into friendship, social performance, and the satirical observations that made Swift the most feared wit of his age. These are not mere love lyrics but anatomical dissections of human attachment, written in verse so precise it still cuts three centuries later. For readers who cherish Dryden's wit, Pope's precision, and the dark comedy of 'Gulliver's Travels,' this collection offers Swift at his most personal and most barbed.