Syphilis Is Rough: A Mini (lazy) Explication of "A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed"

Jonathan Swift's poem "A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed" produces two troubling images. First the image of a women removing her clothes and means of making herself look like societies standards. Then the shocking reality of exactly what the women is covering up.

The poem starts from top to bottom in the sense that the women begins by removing /her artificial hair/ (line 10), works her way down to /picking out a crystal eye/ (11) then her /teeth completely comes/ (20). She /pulls out the rags contrived to prop/ her flabby dugs/ (21-22), /unlaces next her steel-ribbed bodice/ (24) then finally she some weird thing that fills in her hips.

Already we can see that something is completely out of the sync with the poem's title. The word "nymph" first suggest a mythological creature. The Oxford English Dictionary backs this idea up, as that definition has the first listing. However, the second listing is "euphemistic, a prostitute, a women regarded as a means of sexual gratification"; the third listing "A beautiful young women" (Nymph). The idea of a beautiful women needing to do so much work to remove things like her eyebrows, jaw and ye old pushup bra causes some conflict with the initial understanding of "nymph". The euphemism for prostitute is uncovered in several areas.
Early in the poem she gets home fairly late, /Returning at the midnight hour/ (8).
Then later on she dreams in a stereotypical trope of who would and would not sleep with a prostitute, /on watchmen, constables and duns / From whom she meets with frequent rubs / But, never from religious clubs/ (51-53). The /frequent rubs/ she gives upon meeting with the /watchmen, constables and duns/ - all men in the time period, is likely sexual. After all, she is not meeting up with women to give rubs to according to this poem.

Up until lines 29-32 it could be surmised that there were some major physical disfigurements with Corinna. However, when she /With gentlest touch, she next explores / Her shankers, issues, running sores/ /Effects of many a sad disaster/ And then to each applies a plaister/ (29-32) that the diagnosis of syphilis comes into play because of the /running sores/, which are the most recognizable symptom of syphilis. Syphilis can lie dormant in a person for years before manifesting physical symptoms. The line /Effects of many a sad disaster/ (31) calls to mind a tradition of failings on either Corinna's part or in her past. The poem's title describes her as "young" and because of this description and the severity of her physical detriments it could be possible that Corinna was passed syphilis from her mother at birth and the disease has been manifesting over many years.

Mercury was commonly used to treat syphilis which is now known to make people crazy, or "mad as a hatter" as was once said of hat makers who used mercury in their craft and were well documented to be mentally off. Mercury is what /She takes a bolus ere she sleeps/ And then between two blankets creeps / (37-38). This causes her to have /pains of love tormented lies/, which are crazy thoughts or /if she chance to close her eyes/ (39-40), crazy dreams.

There is another syphilis related treatment in line 63, /A pigeon picked her issue-peas/; issue-peas were dried peas placed in open wounds to hinder them from closing. This allowed the wounds to drain out excess puss build up.

It is worth mentioning that this poem has a strict meter of eight syllables per line, with the exception of six couplets that contain nine syllables. These scattered meter broken couplets replicates the disjointed mood of the poem; they create an even deeper sense of despair as the poem tackles first the idea of beauty standards, the pain of treating syphilitic sores, the crazy mercury induced dreams, and finally the heartbreaking reality of Corinna getting dressed again in the morning and continues to /be poison'd/ (74).