Consult yourself, and if you find
A powerful impulse urge your mind,
Impartial judge within your breast
What subject you can manage best;
Whether your genius most inclines
To satire, praise, or hum'rous lines,
To elegies in mournful tone,
Or prologue sent from hand unknown.
Then, rising with Aurora's light,
The Muse invoked, sit down to write;
Blot out, correct, insert, refine,
Enlarge, diminish, interline;
Be mindful, when invention fails,
To scratch your head, and bite your nails.
(Jonathan Swift, "On Poetry: A Rhapsody," published on December 31, 1733)
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Comments
I have almost non-existent knowledge of literary writings, but what so ever little I have read over the last few years, I have noticed that writers prefer the term breast over chest. In the following verse:
Impartial judge within your breast
What subject you can manage best;
Had the author used chest instead of the actual word breast, it would have still rhymed perfectly well, at least in my opinion.
Not that I have anything against breasts, actually far from it, but does it not give the whole piece a feminist touch or view; as if the author is entirely interested in engaging a particular section of the society. Having said in the introductory paragraph that this is not the first time I have noticed such usage, do their writings actually happen to be imaginary conversations with a female audience, or does it have something to do with my lack of understanding of how the literature works?
The difference lies in the music of the line, to my mind at least, for while ‘within your breast flows, the alternative ‘within your chest’ has a harsher ring to it.