Important words from Montagu\u2019s:<\/p>\n

Wisdom and Merit<\/p>\n

Wisdom is used throughout the poem. Normally, we see wisdom as a desirable trait. But here, Montagu seems to be decreasing the value of wisdom. In the beginning, the Doctor tries using his wisdom and wit to joke and charm his way to the lady but that the lady takes no notice of it. What does win the lady\u2019s services is gold. Later she writes \u201cWith learning mad, with wisdom blind!\u201d It seems as if she is saying that the wise think that they are always right when they\u2019re not. However, later she clarifies her true point when she writes, \u201cNone strive to know their proper merit\/But strain for wisdom, beauty, spirit,\/And lose the praise that is their due\/While they\u2019ve th\u2019impossible in view.\u201d Merit is something that is earned. And back then, I\u2019m assuming that merit was earned with status and money. And in men, status and money seemed to be associated with wisdom, good-looks, and religion.<\/p>\n

However, Montagu writes that she\u2019s telling this story \u201cto show the wise in some things fail.\u201d She meant to display Dr. S\u2019s arrogance; he thought of himself as having more merit than he really had due to his \u2018wisdom.\u2019 He attempted to pay for the lady\u2019s services with his wisdom and wit, rather than gold. She\u2019s saying Swift views himself as an economical object\u2014that he himself has value and because of that, he does not need to pay for the lady\u2019s services. When she says that \u201cnone strive to know their proper merit, but strain for wisdom, beauty, spirit,\u201d it seems like she is saying that the higher up someone is, the more they exaggerate and inflate themselves to be. Thus, they will never realize their true worth. Wisdom is thought to earn you merit, but the wise claim more merit than they\u2019ve actually earned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Important words from Montagu\u2019s: Wisdom and Merit Wisdom is used throughout the poem. Normally, we see wisdom as a desirable trait. But here, Montagu seems to be decreasing the value of wisdom. In the beginning, the Doctor tries using his wisdom and wit to joke and charm his way to the lady but that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[30,13],"class_list":["post-814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-revision","tag-week2blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paigemorgan.net\/teaching\/engl200d\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paigemorgan.net\/teaching\/engl200d\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paigemorgan.net\/teaching\/engl200d\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paigemorgan.net\/teaching\/engl200d\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paigemorgan.net\/teaching\/engl200d\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=814"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.paigemorgan.net\/teaching\/engl200d\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":816,"href":"https:\/\/www.paigemorgan.net\/teaching\/engl200d\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814\/revisions\/816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paigemorgan.net\/teaching\/engl200d\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paigemorgan.net\/teaching\/engl200d\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paigemorgan.net\/teaching\/engl200d\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}