Meditation Upon a Broomstick

The satire's origins lie in Swift's time at Moor Park, Surrey, when he acted as Secretary to William Temple.

Boyle's Reflections took the form of meditations on everyday subjects, where they were likened to religious themes.

One day, Swift, being bored with the predictability of Boyle's points, wrote his own Meditation[1] and put it into the book.

To get a flavor of the Meditation, consider the last paragraph: But a Broom-stick, perhaps you'll say, is an Emblem of a Tree standing on its Head; and pray what is Man, but a Topsy-turvy Creature, his Animal Faculties perpetually mounted on his Rational; His Head where his Heels should be; groveling on the Earth, and yet with all his Faults, he sets up to be a universal Reformer and Corrector of Abuses, a Remover of Grievances, rakes into every Slut's Corner of Nature, bringing hidden Corruptions to the Light, and raises a mighty Dust where there was none before, sharing deeply all the while, in the very same Pollutions he pretends to sweep away: His last Days are spent in Slavery to Women, and generally the least deserving; 'till worn to the Stumps, like his Brother Bezom, he's either kicked out of Doors, or made use of to kindle Flames, for others to warm Themselves by.The Meditation begins with a rational moral comparison and proceeds to a frenzy of increasingly unlikely comparisons.

While the satire begins with a pitch-perfect imitation of the kindly Boyle's tone, it ends in a frantic, misanthropic and misogynistic note of despair and nihilism.