, written in 1730 and first published in 1732, is one of the more enduringly popular, though controversial, of the poems written by the Anglo-Irish clergyman and satirist Jonathan Swift (1667–1745). The poem describes Strephon sneaking into the dressing room of a young woman he admires, Celia, hoping for cheap thrills but becoming progressively disillusioned and disgusted by the stench and filth he encounters. Since the eighteenth century,

has been cited as evidence of Swift’s perversion and misogyny, peaking with mid-twentieth-century psychoanalytical treatments of what Norman Brown called Swift’s “excremental vision”: “an emphasis on, and attitude toward, the anal function that is unique in Western literature” (Brown…

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Citation: Seager, Nicholas. "The Lady's Dressing-Room". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 March 2025 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=430, accessed 29 March 2025.]