Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WORDS OF THE KING OF BROBDINGNAG, by ALEXANDER POPE


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THE WORDS OF THE KING OF BROBDINGNAG, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: In miniature see nature's power appear
Last Line: Humility's the virtue of the great.
Subject(s): Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)


(AS HE HELD CAPTAIN GULLIVER BETWEEN HIS
FINGER AND THUMB FOR THE INSPECTION OF
THE SAGES AND LEARNED MEN OF THE COURT)

In Miniature see Nature's Power appear;
Which wings the Sun-born Insects of the Air,
Which frames the Harvest-bug, too small for Sight,
And forms the Bones and Muscles of the Mite!
Here view him stretch'd. The Microscope explains,
That the Blood, circling, flows in human Veins;
See, in the Tube he pants, and sprawling lies,
Stretches his little Hands, and rolls his Eyes!

Smit with his Countrey's Love, I've heard him prate
Of Laws and Manners in his Pigmy State.
By Travel, generous Souls enlarge the Mind,
Which home-bred Prepossession had confin'd;
Yet will he boast of many Regions known,
But still, with partial Love, extol his own.
He talks of Senates, and of Courtly Tribes,
Admires their Ardour, but forgets their Bribes;
Of hireling Lawyers tells the just Decrees,
Applauds their Eloquence, but sinks their Fees.
Yet who his Countrey's partial Love can blame?
'Tis sure some Virtue to conceal its Shame.

The World's the native City of the Wise;
He sees his Britain with a Mother's Eyes;
Softens Defects, and heightens all its Charms,
Calls it the Seat of Empire, Arts and Arms!
Fond of his Hillock Isle, his narrow Mind
Thinks Worth, Wit, Learning, to that Spot confin'd;
Thus Ants, who for a Grain employ their Cares,
Think all the Business of the Earth is theirs.
Thus Honey-combs seem Palaces to Bees;
And Mites imagine all the World a Cheese.

When Pride in such contemptuous Beings lies,
In Beetles, Britons, Bugs and Butterflies,
Shall we, like Reptiles, glory in Conceit?
Humility's the Virtue of the Great.





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