With savage pictures fill their gaps,
And o'er unhabitable downs
Place elephants for want of towns." - Meaning and context.">
QuotesCosmos
“

So geographers, in Afric maps,
With savage pictures fill their gaps,
And o'er unhabitable downs
Place elephants for want of towns.

— Jonathan Swift

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "So geographers, in Afric maps,
With savage pictures fill their gaps,
And o'er unhabitable downs
Place elephants for want of towns." in the context of "" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

Tags

#Jonathan Swift#geographers#unhabitable#downsplace#elephants#mapswith#pictures#gapsand#savage#afric#towns#fill
Jonathan Swift

About Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer and satirist. Acclaimed as one of the finest prose satirists in the English language, he was also well known for his poetry and essays.