Swifts satirical poem, his animosity towards the state of disrepair in London is apparent. Yet, he did more than merely satirize, he, like Blake (or rather Blake followed Swift) was also a recorder of historical information. Swift's A Description of a City Shower is disconcerting in the evidence it gives to the state of disgust people felt for London, and the level to which the city needed improvement in sanitation, food, etc. In a sense, the title of Swift's poem doesn't fit. Be it his ironic and satiric humor or an intentional attempt to mislead the audience from the beginning, "A Description of a City Shower" contains enough carnage and disquieting images to justifiably be called a description of a colossal (not to mention deadly) flood. Upon reading the title, one immediately expectsand envisionsa gentle drizzle falling over a bustling metropolitan center. This assumption is further reinforced by the first several lines, which paint an almost nave picture of a town waiting patiently under gray skies for the drops to fall. What Swift gives the reader, however, is a deluge that seems second only to the Great Flood, complete with "blood" and "dung," "drowned puppies," and "dead cats." Far from an innocent spring shower, the rain described in the work is magnificent and awesome in its sheer power and destructive force. It begins lightly, as a "first drizzling shower" (line 18), but in a matter of lines, it becomes "contiguous drops" and is finally labeled a "flood." From here, the speaker begins focusing not on the rain itself, but on the destruction it is causing. He speaks of "swelling kennels" bearing "trophies" and "filth," expanding on this image to include all manner of disgusting refuse. It is after this description, after the reader is told of this repulsive stew of garbage and mud "tumbling down the flood," that the poem ends. Neither Swift nor Blake, in their poems, offers any consolation to their disturbing images ...
