John Gay, Wine

Ian Gordon (Anglia Ruskin University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1708

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Parody
Poetry (any)

Resources

Wine, published in May 1708 when he was twenty-three years old, was John Gay's first published poem. It is a Miltonic parody, of 278 lines, in the style of John Philips's (1676-1708) Splendid Shilling, which had been published seven years earlier in 1701. Gay parodies Milton's epic style as a witty game, or elaborate literary joke, for those in the know. The reader is expected to recognise the allusions to Paradise Lost and enjoy the comic application of a high Miltonic style to low subject matter. Gay flaunts his credentials as a poet, showing he is widely read in earlier poetry and has the verbal and metrical skill to re-create Milton's inverted, blank verse, epic style.

Gay ironically invokes Milton's �…

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478 words

Citation: Gordon, Ian. "Wine". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 March 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8810, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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