"In diet was perhaps too nice,
But gluttony was ne'er his vice:
In ev'ry turn of life content,
And meekly took what fortune sent"
Among the animals who "confess" their worst faults, the pig confesses that he is too accommodating in his diet. He eats whatever he is presented, even if the food itself is gross or uncouth. He does not practice discrimination in his eating habits because he believes in accepting whatever he is offered. He doesn't see this fault of greed or gluttony which others accuse.
"But Vengeance, goddess never sleeping
Soon punished Strephon for his peeing;
His foul imagination links
Each Dame he sees with all her stinks:
And, if unsavory odors fly,
Conceieves a lday standing by"
When Strephon snoops in his wife, Celia's, dressing room after her lengthy preparation he is shocked and horrified by the remnants of her preparation which all display some element of the body's less desirable functions. After discovering these horrible remnants Strephon is forever plagued by the knowledge. No woman appears beautiful anymore because he instantly thinks of all the bodily functions which she must have hidden in order to appear so. He has merely robbed himself of satisfaction in all his snooping, from believing before that women didn't work to appear lovely.
"He burnt his candle to the snuff;
And that's the reason, some folks think,
He left behind so great a stink."
Swift takes no pains to conceal his vile against the general. He even accuses that this man was a miser in his living so long. Concealing the insult in a clever metaphor, Swift nonetheless deliberately de-values the man's life instead of honoring it in elegy form.
"This day let us not be told,
That you are sick, and I grown old;
Nor think on our approaching ills,
And talk of spectacles and pills.
To-morrow will be time enough
To hear such mortifying stuff."
In his commemorative birthday poem for his beloved Stella, Swift still finds it necessary to mention the obscene and undesirable parts of bodily existence. While Stella may be accustomed to Swift's sense of humor by now, she can hardly be expected to enjoy the reminders of illness, age, and death on her birthday, which is already such a mortal reminder of time.
