A Modest Proposal
First sentence
It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabbin-doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms."...
Description
Written and published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1729, A Modest Proposal—full title A Modest Proposal For preventing the Children of Poor People From being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and For making them Beneficial to the Publick—is a satirical essay which mocks the heartless attitudes towards the poor. In order to improve their economic troubles, the essay suggests that the impoverished Irish sell their children as food to rich gentlemen and ladies. Written and published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1729, A Modest Proposal—full title A Modest Proposal For preventing the Children of Poor People From being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and For making them Beneficial to the Publick—is a satirical essay which mocks the heartless attitudes towards the poor. In order to improve their economic troubles, the essay suggests that the impoverished Irish sell their children as food to rich gentlemen and ladies.