Drapier’s Hill (1729)

Abstract

Another of the “Market Hill” poems, this one describes Swift’s purchase of a-plot of land belonging to Sir Arthur Acheson at Drumlack, near For tadown, just north of Sir Arthur’s estate, in the summer of 1729. Swift’s plans for developing the property came to nothing—in a subsequent poem, The Dean’s Reasons for Not Building at Drapier’s Hill, he expresses his realization that “I differ from the Knight / In every point, like black and white” (11. 71–72) and asks himself, “How could I form so wild a vision, / To seek, in deserts, Fields Elysian?” (ll. 15–16). But the poem Drapier’s Hill is noteworthy for Swift’s explicit reference to himself as an Irish patriot, and for its sardonic glance at how quickly fame fades.