An Analysis of a Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed

In the poem, A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed, Jonathan Swift satirically describes the grotesque life of Corinna, a lower class prostitute. Corinna’s situation is unfortunate. She has given her body for money and is now left with the ramifications. Swift provides the reader with rich imagery depicting the repulsive routine that goes into Corinna preparing for bed. Corinna starts with her face and slowly makes her way down to her feet. Each time she removes an object, it provides a new disgusting aspect of Corinna’s festering physical body and emotional insecurities. By the end of the list, the reader sees Corinna bare with all her vulgar imperfections. As the title and subtitle imply, Corinna acts as a representative for the “fair sex,” women. Swift depicts Corinna’s disturbed physical and emotional life to achieve schadenfreude, a sense of happiness for men knowing they are superior to Corinna and all women.

Through diction choice, the speaker ironically described Corinna’s social status to initiate a sense of mockery. He titles Corinna as the “pride of Drury-Lane” (1). At first glance this sentence seems to compliment Corinna by explaining how the town of Drury-Lane uses her as a sense of honor. The speaker enhances the sardonic pedestal by further explaining, “Never did Covent Garden Boast/ So bright a batter’d strolling toast” (3-4). The diction “boast” and “bright” establish a false sense of accomplishment towards Corinna. The sentence explains that not only is Corinna an outstanding prostitute but other towns known for prostitution cannot present an individual that can accomplish what Corinna has fulfilled. So far the poem has simply hinted towards irony by implying Corinna is a prostitute, however, the diction “batter’d” and “strolling” explicitly describes Corinna negatively revealing the irony within these sentences. Corinna is not the leader she seems to be described as but merely is a used, moldy piece of “toast.” The pedestal of fallacious...