RPO -- Jonathan Swift : Stella's Birthday March 13, 1719

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

Stella's Birthday March 13, 1719

1Stella this day is thirty-four,

2(We shan't dispute a year or more:)

3However, Stella, be not troubled,

4Although thy size and years are doubled,

5Since first I saw thee at sixteen,

6The brightest virgin on the green;

7So little is thy form declin'd;

8Made up so largely in thy mind.

9 Oh, would it please the gods to split

10Thy beauty, size, and years, and wit;

11No age could furnish out a pair

12Of nymphs so graceful, wise, and fair;

13With half the lustre of your eyes,

14With half your wit, your years, and size.

15And then, before it grew too late,

16How should I beg of gentle Fate,

17(That either nymph might have her swain,)

18To split my worship too in twain.

Notes

1] "Stella" was Swift's name for Miss Hester (Esther) Johnson (1681-1728), to whom Swift addressed his Journal. He was accustomed to send Stella birthday-verses from 1719 until her death. It has been supposed that Swift was secretly married to Stella, but there is no substantial evidence on this point.

5] Swift first met her when he was secretary to Sir William Temple at Moor Park. (In the birthday-poems his references to her age are frequently inaccurate.)

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: Miscellanies, I, Vol. 3 (London: B. Notte, 1727). B-12 0241 Fisher Rare Book Library (Toronto).
First publication date: 1727
RPO poem editor: G. G. Falle
RP edition: 3RP 2.65.
Recent editing: 4:2002/5/29

Form: Short Couplets

Other poems by Jonathan Swift