Poem: A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed

Jonathan Swift composed this poem in 1731 and he subtitled it (ironically) “Written for the Honour of the Fair Sex,”. It reflects the persistent, unromantic, and satirical vision that marks the later years of Swift’s writing. This most unpoetic of poems presents the terrible process by means of which an eighteenth century London prostitute gets ready to go to sleep after her job—a process which involves her divesting herself of those various artifices she uses to disguise both her physical and moral corruption. The poet offers three different moments in Corinna's night: her preparations for bed (lines 1-38), her fitful dreams (lines 39-59), and her waking to personal disaster (lines 58-64).

The “I” of a first-person narrator (could it be Swift himself) intrudes at the end to provide moral commentary on the whole situation described (lines 65-74).