On the Day of Judgment Summary & Analysis
by Jonathan Swift

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The Full Text of “On the Day of Judgment”

1With a whirl of thought oppressed,

2I sink from reverie to rest.

3An horrid vision seized my head,

4I saw the graves give up their dead.

5Jove, armed with terrors, bursts the skies,

6And thunder roars and light'ning flies!

7Amazed, confused, its fate unknown,

8The world stands trembling at his throne.

9While each pale sinner hangs his head,

10Jove, nodding, shook the heav'ns, and said:

11"Offending race of human kind,

12By nature, reason, learning, blind;

13You who, through frailty, stepped aside,

14And you, who never fell—through pride;

15You who in different sects have shammed,

16And come to see each other damned;

17(So some folk told you, but they knew

18No more of Jove's designs than you);

19The world's mad business now is o'er,

20And I resent these pranks no more.

21I to such blockheads set my wit!

22I damn such fools!—Go, go, you're bit."

  • “On the Day of Judgment” Introduction

    • "On the Day of Judgment" is a poem usually attributed to Jonathan Swift, an 18th-century Irish poet, essayist, and Anglican cleric known for his biting satire. The poem imagines the arrival of Judgment Day, when both the living and the dead will be judged by God and either deemed worthy of Heaven or condemned to Hell. The twist, here, is that God turns out to be Jove (a.k.a. Jupiter, the king of the gods in ancient Roman myth). Jove resents humankind for its foolish infighting and the way prideful religious "sects" root for one another's damnation. Out of exasperation, Jove damns all of humankind.

  • “On the Day of Judgment” Summary

    • Filled with heavy, swirling thoughts, the speaker slips from daydreaming into sleep. The speaker is suddenly overtaken by a horrible vision of dead people rising from their graves. The speaker sees a heavily armed Jupiter (king of the ancient Roman gods) burst through the sky, accompanied by violent clashes of thunder and bolts of lightning. Shocked, dumbfounded, and unclear of its fate, humanity quivers in front of Jupiter's throne. Pasty sinners lower their heads while Jupiter makes the heavens tremble and speaks: "You humans insult me. You're foolish and deluded not just by your very nature, but even in your use of logic and knowledge. There are those of you who were weak and lost your way and those of you who were too prideful. You've tricked yourselves with all these different religious groups, hoping to see other groups condemned to hell. (Some people told you these things would happen, but they were just as ignorant about my plans as you were.) This utterly crazy behavior is now done, and I won't tolerate this tomfoolery a second longer. I'm declaring my judgment against you nitwits. I condemn you dolts! Now get out of sight—you're done."

  • “On the Day of Judgment” Themes

    • Theme The Foolishness of Religious Infighting

      The Foolishness of Religious Infighting

      Jonathan Swift’s "On the Day of Judgment" is a biting satire that re-imagines the end of the world. Swift wrote the poem at a time of intense squabbling between different sects of Christianity. But when "Judgment Day" finally arrives in this poem, God (here taking the form of "Jove," the tempestuous king of the gods in ancient Rome) is furious with people for spending all their time bickering about which sect got things right. As such, Jove "damn[s]" everyone for being such foolish "blockheads." With this darkly comic twist, the poem portrays arguments over the right way to worship as naive, childish, spiteful, and just plain foolish.

      The people in Swift's poem eagerly anticipate the day on which God will grant his true believers—living or dead—eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven while condemning everyone else to Hell. The "different sects" all think they've figured out God's plan and "come to see each other damned." The speaker makes it sound like these sects have prioritized and even delight in being correct rather than actually living by the tenets of their religion.

      The speaker then imagines God dramatically bursting through the skies to bestow his judgement. All the world "stands trembling at his throne," each "sinner" waiting anxiously to hear their fate (and, ostensibly, be proven right).

      But things don't go according to plan. For one thing, God turns about to be Jove, a.k.a. Jupiter, the king of gods in Roman praying to the wrong deity!

      Note that it's possible that Swift is using "Jove" in a more colloquial sense and still talking about the Christian God; either way, this figure certainly doesn't act the way people hoped he would. Instead of joyously uplifting his true followers, he angrily yells at the whole human race for being so prideful and petty.

      Humanity has offended him with its persistent ignorance. People might think they’re intelligent, but, according to Jove, humanity is "By nature, reason, learning, blind." For all the hours put in by philosophers and theologians, their highbrow explanations have made humankind less able to perceive the truth and more divided than ever.

      "Some folk," adds Jove, might have guessed what was going to happen, but in reality, no one has ever known anything of Jove's real "designs." Jove thus declares that humanity is weak, having "stepp'd aside" from its true course through all this infighting. Humanity has in fact tricked ("shamm'd") itself with all this warring between religious factions. These belief systems are supposed to be built around love, truth, and empathy, and yet they encourage one "sect" too long for the damnation of another (Swift was undoubtedly drawing inspiration from the fighting between Protestants vs. Catholics in his native Ireland).

      Jove thus condemns all of humankind as "blockheads" and refuses to tolerate their "pranks" any longer. He damns everyone and then orders them out of his sight, as though human beings are foolish children he can’t stand to even look at.

      The poem thus takes a bleak view of humanity and organized religion, highlighting the ridiculousness of religious conflict between people who ultimately share the same (or very similar) beliefs. All this fighting, Jove declares, is "mad business."

  • Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “On the Day of Judgment”

    • Lines 1-4

      With a whirl of thought oppressed,
      I sink from reverie to rest.
      An horrid vision seized my head,
      I saw the graves give up their dead.

      The poem begins with a first-person speaker feeling "oppressed," or weighed down, by a "whirl of thought." While the poem doesn't specify what this "thought" relates to, it's tempting to envision the speaker lamenting the sorry state of the world.

      The speaker "sink[s] from reverie to rest," slipping from daydreaming to sleep. The alliteration and assonance of "reverie" and "rest" smoothly link these words, evoking just how easy it is to doze off. Yet a "horrid vision" then "seize[s]" the speaker, interrupting that rest. "Seized" is a particularly active verb, signaling aggression and discomfort; the speaker seems to be overtaken by this vision against their will.

      The speaker sees the dead spring up from the ground. Specifically, the speaker says that "graves give up their dead." This personification suggests that, upon recognizing the arrival of a greater power (God), the earth itself is relinquishing its control of the human beings buried within it. The lively /g/ alliteration here ("graves give") also makes this apocalyptic image all the more gruesome and vivid.

      These four lines establish the poem's meter and rhyme scheme, both of which are typical of Swift and of the Augustan era during which he wrote. The poem uses iambic tetrameter, meaning each line has four iambs (poetic feet that follow an unstressed-stressed syllable pattern, da-DUM).

      The first line actually begins with an anapaest ("With a whirl"), however, a subtle variation that immediately conveys disruption and unrest:

      With a whirl | of thought | oppressed,
      I sink | from re- | verie | to rest.
      An hor- | rid vi- | sion seized | my head,
      I saw | the graves | give up | their dead.

      The speaker also uses rhyming couplets (oppressed/rest, head/dead), which quicken the poem and make its wit seem all the more biting and comic.

    • Lines 5-10

      Jove, armed with terrors, bursts the skies,
      And thunder roars and light'ning flies!
      Amazed, confused, its fate unknown,
      The world stands trembling at his throne.
      While each pale sinner hangs his head,
      Jove, nodding, shook the heav'ns, and said:

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    • Lines 11-14

      "Offending race of human kind,
      By nature, reason, learning, blind;
      You who, through frailty, stepped aside,
      And you, who never fell—through
       
      pride;

    • Lines 15-18

      You who in different sects have shammed,
      And come to see each other damned;
      (So some folk told you, but they knew
      No more of Jove's designs than you);

    • Lines 19-22

      The world's mad business now is o'er,
      And I resent these pranks no more.
      I to such blockheads set my wit!
      I damn such fools!—Go, go, you're bit."

  • “On the Day of Judgment” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

    • Alliteration

      Alliteration adds intensity to the poem's language and thus to Jove's forceful condemnation of humankind. At times, shared sounds also evoke the specific imagery being described.

      In line 1, for example, the breathy /w/ sounds of "With a whirl" seem to convey the whoosh of thought that swirls around the speaker's mind. In the following line, alliteration and assonance link "reverie" and "rest": these words sound very similar, in turn evoking the smoothness with which the speaker "sink[s]" from daydreaming into full-on sleep.

      In line 4, the guttural /g/ alliteration of "graves give up their dead" adds some forcefulness to this image of the earth relinquishing its power over the dead to God. And when the speaker later says that "each pale sinner hands his head" while awaiting Jove's judgment, the triple /h/ sounds call readers' attention to this image of people standing in shame/confusion/despair before Jove. These huffing /h/ sounds also create a weary, exasperated tone, as though humanity is letting out a collective sigh.

    • Asyndeton

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    • Imagery

    • Irony

    • Repetition

  • “On the Day of Judgment” Vocabulary

    Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

    • Whirl
    • Reverie
    • Horrid
    • Jove
    • Terrors
    • Offending
    • Sects
    • Shammed
    • Damned
    • Designs
    • O'er
    • Resent
    • Blockheads
    • Set my wit
    • You're bit
    Whirl
    • Swirl.

  • Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “On the Day of Judgment”

    • Form

      "On the Day of Judgment" consists of a single, 22-line stanza, which can be further broken down into 12 rhyming couplets. The poem also uses steady iambic tetrameter, a meter of four iambs (da-DUMs) per line.

      The combination of frequent rhymes and a bouncy iambic rhythm adds some lighthearted music to the poem, which balances its apocalyptic imagery. The poem's form reminds readers that this is all meant to be ironic and tongue-in-cheek.

      The lack of stanza breaks might also subtly evoke the way that the speaker "sink[s] from reverie to rest"—from daydream to sleeping vision. That is, there's a seamless transition between the poem's framing device (in which a first-person speaker describes having a "horrid vision") and the day of judgment as the speaker imagines it.

    • Meter

      "On the Day of Judgment" uses iambic tetrameter, a fairly typical meter of the Augustan period during which Swift was writing (more on this in the Context section of this guide). A line of iambic tetrameter contains four iambs, poetic feet with an unstressed-stressed syllable pattern (da-DUM).

      Here's line 3 as an example of this meter at work:

      An hor- | rid vi- | sion seized | my head,

      In general, this bouncy meter adds some predictable music and momentum to the poem. Steady iambs can sound quite authoritative too, and here they help to make Jove's speech seem all the more epic.

      There are some variations on this meter that keep the poem sounding fresh and interesting. In fact, the poem actually starts with a variation in line 1:

      With a whirl | of thought | oppressed,

      The first foot here is an anapest (da-da-DUM). This subtly adds a hiccup to the poem's opening, perhaps evoking the confusing, confounding weight of that oppressive "whirl of thought."

      Later, listen to the spondee (DUM-DUM) that begins line 5:

      Jove, armed | with ter- | rors, bursts | the skies,

      That heavy double stress reflects Jove's terrifying might.

    • Rhyme Scheme

      "On the Day of Judgment" uses the most popular rhyme scheme of the Augustan era: the rhyming couplet. In other words, rhymes come in pairs:

      AABBCCDDEEFF... and so on

      All these quick, perfect end rhymes fill the poem with predictable music that adds some levity to its depiction of doomsday. Couplets push the poem forward: once the speaker introduces a new rhyme word, readers anticipate the satisfying click of its partner in the next line. In this way, couplets might subtly evoke a sense of inevitability that mirrors humanity's inescapable doom.

  • “On the Day of Judgment” Speaker

    • "On the Day of Judgment" effectively has two speakers.

      The poem begins with an anonymous first-person speaker who's feeling "oppressed," or weighed down, by "a whirl of thought" (perhaps the speaker has been thinking about various religious squabbles of their day). This speaker slips from a daydream into actual sleep and is then "seized" by a terrifying "vision" of Judgment Day. The poem's opening lines create a framing device, a setup for the main event, and this it's-all-a-dream trick also adds to the poem's humor; this could just be the product of a tired, troubled mind.

      From line 11 onwards, the poem belongs to Jove, a.k.a Jupiter, the king of the gods in ancient Roman mythology (his counterpart in Greek myth is Zeus). This new speaker creates an element of surprise and drama: this isn't the God that people were expecting to show up on Judgment day!

      It's also possible that the speaker isn't literally referring to a mythological figure and is just using the name "Jove" to convey God's grumpiness and rage. Jove is a notoriously tempestuous ruler, and, in this poem, clearly has a low opinion of humanity. He's fed up with people's religious infighting, pridefulness, and ignorant attempts to divine his "designs." Soon enough, Jove dismisses humanity as an annoying irrelevance, clearly exasperated with what he's been seeing.

  • “On the Day of Judgment” Setting

    • Technically, the poem takes place within the speaker's dream. This person slips "from reverie to rest" in the poem's opening lines, at which point they're "seized" by a "horrid vision" of Judgment Day: the day when God will judge all of humanity, offering the righteous salvation and condemning everyone else to hell. As line 4 reveals, this judgment extends even to those who are already dead; they'll rise up from their graves to face God.

      The rest of the poem takes place before the "throne" of Jove, the king of the gods in Roman mythology. Jove's arrival is dramatic, accompanied by terrifying cracks of thunder and bolts of lightning. The scene sounds, appropriately, like the end of the world. All of humanity "stands trembling" before Jove, "confused" and unsure of its fate.

  • Literary and Historical Context of “On the Day of Judgment”

      Literary Context

      The Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift (1667 to 1745) is best known for his works of satirical prose, including Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal. Swift was also a poet and political pamphleteer who, along with his friend Alexander Pope, was one of the most famous literary figures of the Augustan era.

      Swift, like other writers of this era, was deeply influenced by the literature of ancient Rome and took his satirical cues from poets like Horace and Juvenal. Though a church leader, Swift also had notoriously little patience for humanity's shortcomings. In a letter to Pope, he defined a human being as an animal rationis capax—that is, as a creature capable of reason but not guaranteed to actually use it.

      Swift combined his technical skill with biting wit to critique what he saw as the hypocrisies of his day; here, his target is religious infighting. There's some debate about the true origins of "On the Day of Judgment," however. The first mention of the poem appears in a letter from Lord Chesterfield to the French philosopher Voltaire in 1752, but this wasn't written in Swift's hand. While scholars now generally agree that Swift did indeed write "On the Day of Judgment," numerous versions of the poem exist (the one included in this guide is the most recent and is known as the St. James Chronicle version).

      Critics also disagree on the exact target of the poem's satire: it might take aim specifically at Nonconformists (Protestant Christians who took issue with the rule of the Church of England) or the world's religions in a more general sense (e.g., Christianity, Islam, and Judaism).

      Historical Context

      Jonathan Swift attended Trinity College, Dublin, received a Master of Arts degree from Oxford, and was eventually ordained as an Anglican priest. He served as the Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin and is sometimes referred to as "Dean Swift."

      The 18th century was a time of considerable religious upheaval in England and Ireland. England had become a Protestant country under Henry VIII in the 16th century, while the majority of Ireland remained Roman Catholic. A series of “penal laws,” which were meant to encourage the Catholic Irish to convert to Protestantism, rendered much of the Irish population disenfranchised and destitute.

      Swift, for his part, was a member of the Church of Ireland (which was tied to the Church of England) and feared the influence of the Catholic Church. That said, his satire did at times target the harsh treatment of his native Ireland under English rule.

      The Anglican Church (a.k.a. the Church of England) was not without its Protestant critics, either. Referred to collectively as "Dissenters," these Protestant groups might be the "sects" referred to in line 15.

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