APPEARANCES

Appearances can be quite superficial. Just because someone seems nice, or looks beautiful,
doesn't mean that they actually are. Johnson's poem focuses on the way that appearances can
mislead us. If we look good on the outside, it doesn't mean we're good on the inside.

 Lines 83-86: The imagery of the "painted face" and the "the frame of gold" evokes a
painting or a portrait. It also suggests the way in which people make themselves up to
look good. These lines suggest how looks can disguise the corruption that's within.
 Lines 319-320: Even mothers are into appearances: they want their child to have "the
fortune of a face"—to look beautiful. The speaker suggests that such a superficial focus
on appearances isn't a good thing. We should care that our children are good, not that
they look good.
 Lines 323-324: The speaker's words in this section suggests that good looks don't
necessarily go with wisdom. Our good looks will lead us towards pleasure rather than
toward wisdom.
 Lines 341-342: Appearances—and especially our beauty—can lead us toward temptation.
And temptation, in turn, can lead us into disgrace. These lines continue the poem's
emphasis on the dangers of appearances.

FATE
Fate is not very kind to us, according to the speaker of this poem. It has a way of making things
really hard for us. Fate doesn't give us what we want, but what we don't want. It raises us up,
only to tear us down again. The poem's speaker suggests that we can't fight fate. We have to just
sit back and accept the blows that it deals us. Doesn't sound like much fun, does it?

 Lines 5-6: In these lines, fate is represented as a scary "maze" that we have to navigate.
It's tough finding our way through, and it's even tougher because our judgement is often
clouded by our own pride.
 Lines 15-16: The imagery the speaker uses to describe fate here represents it as
"afflictive," an attack. When we wish for or desire something, fate creates a "dart" that
will pop our happy hopes for us.
 Lines 125-126: The imagery associated with fate in these lines again depicts it as
dangerous. "The steeps of fate" suggest that fate is like a tall, dangerous mountain that we
have to scale.
 Lines 311-312: The speaker tells us in these lines that very few of us can escape the
troubles that fate brings us. The imagery of fate as dangerous is suggested in the
geographic depiction of the "gulfs" of fate. Fate is full of big holes ready to swallow us
up.
 Lines 345-346: In these lines, the speaker again describes fate in terms of geography.
Man is depicted as rolling along the "torrent" of fate, apparently unable to swim against
the current.

WEALTH AND GOLD

As another poet once said: mo' money, mo' problems. Apparently, back in the eighteenth century
the speaker of Johnson's poem thought so too. There's a lot of imagery focusing on wealth and
gold in "The Vanity of Human Wishes." Generally, this imagery suggests the way in which
money not only corrupts people but also creates a lot of problems for them. In this way the
imagery is counter-intuitive: we may think that money solves our problems, but actually
it creates problems.

 Lines 21-26: These lines represent gold as corrupting. Not only does gold corrupt people,
it destroys them. We're massacred by gold. We do bad things for gold.
 Lines 27-28: Here the speaker suggests that wealth doesn't protect us, it harms us. We
may think that, if we're rich, we'll have safety and security, but in fact the richer we are
the more troubles we have.
 Lines 112-114: The speaker refers to Cardinal Wolsey in these lines, and the imagery
suggests how fleeting wealth is. Wolsey was rich, he had "golden" canopies and
"glitt'ring" plates, but he lost them all.
 Lines 287-290: Money brings us anxiety and worries. We may end up in debt, for
instance. And even if we have money, we can't help worrying about losing it. It doesn't
bring us peace; it makes us anxious.
 Lines 73-74: These lines affirm an idea that appears again and again in the poem: wealth
corrupts us. We kiss up to people who have money because we too want to be rich and
great like them.
 Lines 81-82: Here, again, the speaker is telling us how bad money is. We run to anyone
who has it and dedicate ourselves to them, all in the hope of growing rich ourselves.
 Lines 121-122: Ultimately, the speaker suggests that money brings us to a bad end.
Cardinal Wolsey ends up dead, despite all of his money.

ANALYSIS: FORM AND METER

Satire, Written in Heroic Couplets

The form of this poem, as we've already mentioned, is indicated in its title. It's a satire. A
satirical poem is one that makes fun of someone or something, and does so in a way that reveals
their flaws.
Johnson's poem is a satire because it's a critical poem. It's poem that shows up all the flaws of
humankind. We're far from perfect, according to this poem, and in great detail Johnson shows us
exactly how, and why, we're not perfect.
In terms of meter, the poem is written in a pattern of heroic couplets. A heroic couplet is made
up of two lines of rhymed iambic pentameter. We know we're throwing a lot of terminology at
you, Shmoopers, but it's not that complicated. Iambic pentameter just means that you have a line
with five (penta- means five) iambs, which are two-syllable pairs in which the first syllable is
unstressed, but the second one is stresses (daDUM). But don't take our word for it. Let's take the
first two lines of the poem as an example of a heroic couplet:
Let observation with extensive view,
Survey mankind from China to Peru.
You should hear the five iambs at work in these lines: daDUM, daDUM, daDUM, daDUM,
daDUM. The alternating stress of the syllables and the rhyme scheme of these two lines indicates
that they're a heroic couplet.
In English poetry, heroic couplets were popularized by Alexander Pope. Pope was Johnson's
predecessor and an important influence on Johnson's own work. Both our title (where he name
drops Juvenal) and the form and meter of this poem show us that Johnson was working in the
solidly classical tradition. He's old school all the way here.

ANALYSIS: SPEAKER
The speaker of this poem is a wise guy. He knows the world. He's surveying it all—and we do
mean all—from "China to Peru." What's more, he doesn't like what he sees, because everywhere
he finds greedy people or power-hungry people. Everyone else, according to this speaker, kisses
up to those who have power and wealth.
In this sense we can view the speaker as a critic of human society. He's someone who thinks that
people strive after all the wrong things. Instead of seeking wisdom, they run after money. Instead
of being content with a humble, peaceful life, they chase power and status.
The speaker is also a religious figure. The poem ends, after all, with the speaker telling us that
the only hope of happiness and peace we have lies in our religious faith. Yeah, this world is the
absolute pits, so we have to look to the next one (i.e., Heaven) for guidance. And if we're really
good, God might just give us a helping hand—in this life and the next.

ANALYSIS: SETTING
The setting of this poem is… well, the entire world. Yup, the speaker says it in the first couple of
lines of the poem: "Let observation, with extensive view/ Survey mankind from China to Peru"
(1-2). So the poem literally covers a lot of territory—all the way from Far East Asia to South
America, with everything in between.
Not only does the speaker cover mankind all over the world, he also covers a huge chunk of
human history. He goes all the way back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, as when he says:
"Such bribes the rapid Greek o'er Asia whirl'd;/ For such the steady Romans shook the world"
(179-180). Then he brings everything up to modern times (as in, the eighteenth century). Our
speaker's out to show that all, and we do mean all, of humanity's striving—past, present, near, or
far—is ultimately doomed, which is why we need to turn to God. The sheer size of the setting for
this poem just adds further proof for his argument.

ANALYSIS: SOUND CHECK

Reading "The Vanity of Human Wishes" out loud is a little like swinging on a swing.
The rhythm is very regular, and it kind of lulls us into this nice back-and-forth movement. Let's
take the first few lines of the poem, for example:
Let observation with extensive view,
Survey mankind from China to Peru.
Remark each anxious toil, each eager strife,
And watch the busy scenes of crowded life. (1-4)
We're swinging back and forth between the syllables and the sounds as we read those lines.
We'll find this rhythm throughout the rest of the poem (check out "Form and Meter" for the
details). Johnson often also repeats letters and sounds in a particular cluster of lines, in a
technique called consonance. In the lines, "How nations sink, by darling schemes
oppress'd,/When vengeance listens to the fool's request," there's a lot of repetition of the S sound,
which adds to the musicality of the lines.
All this repetition also subtly reinforces the sheer scope of all the bad… stuff that this poem takes
up. Every little human endeavour, every human wish, can turn out bad. Don't believe our
speaker? Well here's a few hundred examples to prove you wrong. And while you're going
through all of those, the repetition in the poem's sounds will be there to underscore the
exhaustive (and exhausting) nature of the speaker's investigation.

ANALYSIS: WHAT'S UP WITH THE TITLE?

The full title of Johnson's poem is—wait for it—"The Vanity of Human Wishes: The Tenth
Satire of Juvenal Imitated." That's quite a title, and it's telling us several things. First of all, the
first half of the title—"The Vanity of Human Wishes"—suggests the pessimistic outlook of the
poem. These words are telling us not to even try to have hopes, desires and wishes. They ain't
gonna come true. Or if they do, they will crumble into dust in no time. Sheesh, talk about
pessimism.
The second part of the title—"The Tenth Satire of Juvenal Imitated"—is also important, because
it's setting up a relationship between Johnson's poem and a Latin poem. In other words, the title
is telling us to read this poem in relation to Juvenal's Tenth Satire.
The title also gives away the poem's form. If the poem is an imitation of Juvenal's "Tenth Satire,"
then it's meant to be read as a satire. Check out "Form and Meter" for more on that.

ANALYSIS: CALLING CARD

Imitating, Never Duplicating

Although Johnson is better known as a prose writer than a poet, we can distinguish his famous
poems quite easily. His two most famous poems—"London" and "The Vanity of Human
Wishes"— are both imitations of satires by the Latin poet Juvenal.
And how do we know they're imitations of Juvenal's satires? Easy: their subtitles tell us so. The
subtitle of"London" is an "Imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal." And the subtitle of "The
Vanity of Human Wishes," is, of course, "The Tenth Satire of Juvenal Imitated."

ANALYSIS: TOUGH-O-METER

(8) Snow Line

The historical allusions that litter this poem make it a difficult one to get through (thank
goodness we're here to point them all out to you). That's not to mention Samuel Johnson's
elaborate poetic language, which is pretty tough at times. But no fear! We're here to throw you a
rope on this climb. You'll be enjoying the view in no time.

ANALYSIS: TRIVIA
Samuel Johnson compiled and wrote the first modern English dictionary, A Dictionary of the
English Language (also known as "Johnson's Dictionary"). And he did it in only nine years. It
was published in 1755. (Source.)
Johnson had Tourette's Syndrome. (It's a genetic disease which is characterized by uncontrolled
movement and vocalization.) Unfortunately it caused a lot of trouble for poor Samuel Johnson.
After all, people didn't know what "Tourette's Syndrome" was back in the day. (Source.)
Johnson was the subject, not the author, of another famous book: James Boswell's Life of Samuel
Johnson. It's considered one of the most important biographies in the English language.

ANALYSIS: STEAMINESS RATING

Exactly how steamy is this poem?

PG
Besides a couple of references to the scandalous goings-on of pretty young ladies, there isn't
must explicit sex happening in this poem. Whatever sex is happening is very vaguely mentioned
by the speaker, when he says "Here Beauty falls betray'd, despised, distress'd,/ And hissing
Infamy proclaims the rest" (341). In other words, if we're young and beautiful, we're going to
end up getting mixed up in some hanky-panky. And then everyone is going to start gossiping
about us.

ANALYSIS: ALLUSIONS

When poets refer to other great works, people, and events, it’s
usually not accidental. Put on your super-sleuth hat and figure
out why.
Literary and Philosophical References
 Juvenal, "The Tenth Satire" (Title): "The Tenth Satire" is a poem by the Latin poet
Juvenal. It's part of a series of satirical poems that were written in the late first century
CE-early second century CE. Juvenal's "Tenth Satire" in particular focuses on man's
desire for all the wrong things: wealth, power, and beauty, among other things. Sound
 familiar? It should. Johnson's "The Vanity of Human Wishes" is inspired by Juvenal's
satire.

Historical References
 Democritus (49): He was an ancient Greek philosopher who advocated that we should
live life with humility and moderation.
 Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (99, 122, 125): Wolsey was the Cardinal of the Roman
Catholic Church between 1514 and 1530. He was also the right-hand man of King Henry
VIII, but fell out of favour with him when he failed to get Henry permission from the
Pope to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon.
 George Villiers (129): Villiers was the first Duke of Buckingham, and was a close ally of
King James I of England. He was assassinated at the beginning of the reign of King
Charles I.
 Robert Harley (130): Harley was the first Earl of Oxford. In 1715 he was imprisoned in
the Tower of London by King George I.
 Thomas Wentworth (131): Wentworth was the First Earl of Strafford. He was a close
advisor to King Charles I, but eventually fell out of favor and was executed in 1641.
 Edward Hyde (131): He was the First Earl of Clarendon, who was impeached and went
into exile in France once King Charles I turned his back on him.
 Thomas Lydiat (164): Lydiat was a clergyman and mathematician who ended his last
years living in poverty.
 Galileo (164): Galileo was a scientist and mathematician who played a major role in the
scientific revolution.
 William Laud (168): Laud was the Archbishop of Canterbury between 1633 and 1645.
He was executed in 1645 because of his attacks on religious dissidents.
 Alexander (the "rapid Greek") (179): Alexander the Great became king of the Greek
kingdom of Macedon in 336 BC. He is famous for his conquest of large parts of Asia and
North Africa.
 Marlborough (317): This refers to John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough, who was a
soldier and an important political figure under Queen Anne of Great Britain.
 Charles XII (192): Charles XII was the king of Sweden between 1697 and 1718. He tried
to conquer parts of Russia, including Moscow, but failed, and was eventually exiled to
the Ottoman Empire.
 Xerxes (227): He's the Persian King who was defeated by the Greeks when he tried to
invade Greece in 480 BC.
 Charles VII (also known as Charles Albert, "Bavaria's lord") (224): Charles was crowned
as Holy Roman Emperor in 1742. He led a campaign to win over the throne of Austria,
but was defeated.
 Maria Theresa ("The Queen, the Beauty") (246): Maria Theresa became the ruler of
Austria in 1740. Her claim to the throne was challenged by Charles VII, but she defeated
him.
 Croesus ("Lydia's monarch") (313): The king of Lydia (an ancient kingdom), he ruled
between 560 and 547 BC.
 Solon (314): He was a poet and a statesman from Athens. The story goes that he visited
king Croesus of Lydia, and told the king that he shouldn't count himself happy until he
 had lived to the end of his life. In other words, we never know what fate has in store for
us.
 Anne Vane (321): She was a lady-in-waiting who was the lover of George II's son
Frederick.
 Catherine Sedley (322): She was the lover of King James II. Her father wasn't happy
about her relationship with the king.