If Swift is not serious, why does he take such a “serious” tone and highly-stylized formal language?

Swift’s satires do not merely comment upon certain political, social, or religious beliefs; they are also commentary about how those beliefs are expressed. Swift’s satire is always also literary satire. Swift wrote “A Meditation Upon A Broomstick” to mock not only Robert Boyle’s Puritanism but also Boyle's writing style itself, calling Boyle a “silly writer.” “A Modest Proposal,” too, sought to mock the “can-do” attitude of many writers of the day, who thought that only one simple solution was needed to cure large and complex problems. In addition, Swift’s use of flowery language to suggest strange or wild things generally serves to mock the use of such language.