Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HOLYHEAD, SEPTEMBER 25, 1727, by JONATHAN SWIFT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HOLYHEAD, SEPTEMBER 25, 1727, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Lo here I sit at holyhead
Last Line: Than rule yon isle and be a slave.
Subject(s): Freedom; Liberty


Lo here I sit at Holyhead
With muddy ale and mouldy bread
All Christian victuals stink of fish
I'm where my enemies would wish
Convict of lies is every sign,
The inn has not one drop of wine
I'm fasten'd both by wind and tide
I see the ship at anchor ride
The Captain swears the sea's too rough
He has not passengers enough.
And thus the Dean is forc'd to stay
Till others come to help the pay
In Dublin they'd be glad to see
A packet though it brings in me.
They cannot say the winds are cross
Your politicians at a loss
For want of matter swears and frets,
Are forced to read the old gazettes.
I never was in haste before
To reach that slavish hateful shore
Before, I always found the wind
To me was most malicious kind
But now, the danger of a friend
On whom my fears and hopes depend
Absent from whom all climes are curst
With whom I'm happy in the worst
With rage impatient makes me wait
A passage to the land I hate.
Else, rather on this bleaky shore
Where loudest winds incessant roar
Where neither herb nor tree will thrive,
Where nature hardly seems alive,
I'd go in freedom to my grave,
Than rule yon isle and be a slave.







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