Swift's Epitaph

"Swift's Epitaph" is a translation by Irish poet William Butler Yeats of Jonathan Swift's epitaph, which Swift wrote for himself in Latin. Yeats' somewhat free translation appeared in his 1933 collection The Winding Stair and Other Poems.

Swift's Epitaph

Swift has sailed into his rest;
Savage indignation there
Cannot lacerate his Breast.
Imitate him if you dare,
World-Besotted Traveler; he
Served human liberty.

The original Latin version of Swift's epitaph

Hic depositum est Corpus
IONATHAN SWIFT S.T.D.
Hujus Ecclesiæ Cathedralis
Decani,
Ubi sæva Indignatio
Ulterius
Cor lacerare nequit,
Abi Viator
Et imitare, si poteris,
Strenuum pro virili
Libertatis Vindicatorem.

Obiit 19º Die Mensis Octobris
A.D. 1745 Anno Ætatis 78º.

Literal Translation

Here is laid the Body
of Jonathan Swift, Doctor of Sacred Theology,
Dean of this Cathedral Church,

where fierce Indignation
can no longer
injure the Heart.
Go forth, Voyager,
and copy, if you can,
this vigorous (to the best of his ability)
Champion of Liberty.

He died on the 19th Day of the Month of October,
A.D. 1745, in the 78th Year of his Age.

W. B. Yeats

Poetry

Volumes	The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (1889) The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics (1892) In the Seven Woods (1903) Responsibilities and Other Poems (1916) The Wild Swans at Coole (1919) Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921) The Tower (1928) The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)

Poems	"Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" "Adam's Curse" "Blood and the Moon" "The Circus Animals' Desertion" "Down by the Salley Gardens" "A Drunken Man's Praise of Sobriety" "Easter, 1916" "Ego Dominus Tuus" "In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz" "Lake Isle of Innisfree" "On being asked for a War Poem" "Politics" "A Prayer for My Daughter" "Remorse for Intemperate Speech" "The Rose of Battle" "The Rose-Tree" "Sailing to Byzantium" "September 1913" "Song of the Old Mother" "The Fiddler of Dooney" "The Scholars" "The Second Coming" "The Song of the Happy Shepherd" "The Stolen Child" "Swift's Epitaph" "To the Rose upon the Rood of Time" "The Tower" "Under Ben Bulben "The Wanderings of Oisin" "The Wild Swans at Coole"

Plays

Other works

A Vision (1925)
"The Curse of the Fires and of the Shadows"
Oxford Book of Modern Verse 1892–1935 (editor)

People

John Butler Yeats (father)
Susan Pollexfen (mother)
Jack Butler Yeats (brother)
Elizabeth Yeats (sister)
Lily Yeats (sister)
Maud Gonne (lover)
Georgie Hyde-Lees (wife)
Anne Yeats (daughter)
Michael Yeats (son)

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