A Modest Proposal

A Modest Proposal and Other Satires is a collection of satirical works of political, social, and religious commentary by Jonathan Swift. The most famous of his essays--perhaps the most famous essay of satire in the English language--is "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents of Country; and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public." This essay was published anonymously in 1729, a year in which Ireland suffered from poverty and famine. "A Modest Proposal" suggests, as a method for dealing with the destitution, that the Irish eat their babies.