“So, naturalists observe, a flea
Hath smaller fleas that on him prey;
And these have smaller still to bit 'em;
And so proceed ad infinitum.
Thus every poet, in his kind,
Is bit by him that comes behind.”

—  Jonathan Swift

On Poetry: Poetry, a Rhapsody (1733)

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Jonathan Swift 141
Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet 1667–1745

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