Compare and contrast the techniques of satire in Pope's The Rape of the Lock and Swift's "A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed."

Both poems start with mimicry of Greek epic poetry by
employing praise of the subject. Swift praises Corinna as the "pride of Drury Lane" (an
upscale area frequented by impoverished women with nothing but themselves to sell). Pope
praises Belinda by saying the subject of his poem is insignificant (i.e., "slight") "but
not so the praise" of Belinda. Each poet quickly turns the poem to the intended
topic.

Swift says "no shepherd sighs in vain" for Corinna's
love, which is a satirical pastoral allusion meaning that Corinna is beloved of no one.
Pope asks "what strange motive" could cause a "Goddess" like Belinda to turn her
feelings to rage: "Could make a gentle Belle reject a Lord / ... / And in soft bosoms
[dwell] such mighty Rage?" Both poets proceed to develop their satirical poems through
detailed description, particularly description of the lady's toilette (i.e., dressing or
undressing ritual).

It is in the description of the
toilettes that Swift and Pope differ. Swift uses deep irony in his descriptions. His
irony is calculated to make Corinna a tragically sympathetic character (“So bright a
battered, strolling toast”) and turn his satire to a serious social point (“With pains
of love tormented lies”). Pope uses light-hearted irony that is replete with Classical
allusion (“Of airy Elves by moonlight shadows seen”). His irony is meant to make Belinda
looking adoringly vain and turn his satire to a foolish feud between friends (“Beware of
all, but most beware of Man!”).

In "A Beautiful Young Nymph
Going to Bed," Swift uses what is usually thought of as an appealing ritual of
undressing to reveal a young woman who is bereft of nearly everything--except life and
pain--because of the practice of prostitution and its associated
diseases:

readability="11.782805429864">

With pains of love tormented
lies;
Or if she chance to close her eyes,
Of Bridewell and the
Compter dreams,
And feels the lash, and faintly screams;
( title="Notes: A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed. Jonathan Swift 1734. Edited by Jack
Lynch, Ph.D.. Rutgers University"
href="http://ethnicity.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/nymphbed.html#11">NOTE:
Bridewell, a woman's prison. Compter, prisons controlled by
sheriffs)

In The
Rape of the Lock, Pope uses the ritual of dressing in the morning to show how
pampered, privileged, and vain the lovely Belinda and her feud
are:

What
wonder then, fair nymph! thy hairs should feel,
The conqu'ring force of
unresisted steel?

The satire
of the one is meant to reveal the social injustice and evils of Corinna's tragic life,
with the aim of bringing about a change in society, while the satire of the other is
meant to reveal the triviality of a quarrel between friends, with the aim of bringing
about a reconciliation between friends and families.