Jonathan Swift

Here you will find the Poem Advice to the Grub Street Verse-writers of poet Jonathan Swift

Advice to the Grub Street Verse-writers

Ye poets ragged and forlorn,
 Down from your garrets haste;
 Ye rhymers, dead as soon as born,
 Not yet consign'd to paste;
 I know a trick to make you thrive;
 O, 'tis a quaint device:
 Your still-born poems shall revive,
 And scorn to wrap up spice.
 Get all your verses printed fair,
 Then let them well be dried;
 And Curll must have a special care
 To leave the margin wide.

 Lend these to paper-sparing Pope;
 And when he sets to write,
 No letter with an envelope
 Could give him more delight.

 When Pope has fill'd the margins round,
 Why then recall your loan;
 Sell them to Curll for fifty pound,
 And swear they are your own.