Swift's Epitaph
death
freedom
elegy
somber
Swift has sailed into his rest; Savage indignation there Cannot lacerate his breast. Imitate him if you dare, World-besotted traveller; he Served human liberty.
Swift's Epitaph - context Summary
Epitaph for Jonathan Swift
Yeats' short epitaph commemorates Jonathan Swift, written as a funeral inscription and included in The Tower (1928). It notes that Swift's "savage indignation" can no longer wound him and presents him as a model for the "world-besotted traveller," urging imitation. The lines cast Swift as a defender of human liberty whose fierce moral energy survives death and challenges readers to serve the same cause.
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