Poem of the Day: ‘On Stella’s Birth-day’
Jonathan Swift marks this birthday by remarking that had Stella been only half as old (or large), he would worship her only half as much.
Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) first met Esther Johnson, the “Stella” of his poems, in 1689 when she was a child in the house of the diplomat Sir William Temple, whom he served as secretary, and whose natural daughter she might have been. On his 1696 return to Temple’s employ, after a stint as a vicar in the Church of Ireland, Swift again encountered Esther and began the ambiguous relationship that was to last until her death in 1728. Whether or not they were secretly married, as rumor has been whispering since 1715, when this ceremony either did or did not take place, Swift wrote frequently and affectionately to and about his “Stella,” including a series of poems to commemorate her birthday. Today’s Poem of the Day, from 1719, allows its recipient a fifth repeat of her thirty-fourth birthday: “We won’t dispute a year or more.” In tetrameter couplets, the poet marks Stella’s growth in “Size and Years” by remarking that had she been only half as old (or large), he would worship her only half as much.
On Stella’s Birth-day
by Jonathan Swift
Stella this Day is thirty four,
(We won’t dispute a Year or more)
However Stella, be not troubled,
Although thy Size and Years are doubled,
Since first I saw Thee at Sixteen
The brightest Virgin of the Green,
So little is thy Form declin’d
Made up so largely in thy Mind.
Oh, would it please the Gods to split
Thy Beauty, Size, and Years, and Wit,
No Age could furnish out a Pair
Of Nymphs so gracefull, Wise and fair
With half the Lustre of Your Eyes,
With half thy Wit, thy Years and Size:
And then before it grew too late,
How should I beg of gentle Fate,
(That either Nymph might have her Swain,)
To split my Worship too in twain.
___________________________________________
With “Poem of the Day,” The New York Sun offers a daily portion of verse selected by Joseph Bottum with the help of the North Carolina poet Sally Thomas, the Sun’s associate poetry editor. Tied to the day, or the season, or just individual taste, the poems will be typically drawn from the lesser-known portion of the history of English verse. In the coming months we will be reaching out to contemporary poets for examples of current, primarily formalist work, to show that poetry can still serve as a delight to the ear, an instruction to the mind, and a tonic for the soul.
