Jonathan Swift's Last Joke

I may be dense but I’ve reread the article several times trying to understand exactly how this jab was supposed to work against its target. Was it the mere physical juxtaposition and contrast of tone and appearance? I feel like some clever wordplay must have been involved (such as the lines of Swift’s epitaph running into Marsh’s and changing their meaning) … otherwise it doesn’t seem terribly clever? But Swift was terribly clever in general, so I must be missing something.

Were this fiction, I would expect a denouement where images of the two memorial stones, black and white, when placed side by side (as Swift intended), reveal a subtle joke.

I find myself wondering if this essay is meant as a gentle satire. Bemused not savage, not Swiftian.

I am reminded of Lord Peter Wimsey.

Swift wrote his famous epitaph to eternally mock his bitter rival.

Thanks, Gemini.

> Ozymandian pathos

...for the win.