Is the word (explained) a action-linking or helping verb?

Someone please help

What is the meaning of each underlined word in these excerpts from "a modest proposal" by jonathan swift? i think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional grievance; and therefore whoever could find out a fair, cheap and easy method of making these children sound and useful members of the common-wealth, would deserve so well of the publick, as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation. some persons of a desponding spirit are in great concern about that vast number of poor people, who are aged, diseased, or maimed; and i have been desired to employ my thoughts what course may be taken, to ease the nation of so grievous an incumbrance. the word prodigious means . the word desponding means .

Unit testactivelike sparkling stars strewn across the night sky.their brilliance catching the corner of my eye,making me slow down, just to look at them a little longer.in my awe of the sheer beauty of merely broken glass,i couldn't but thinkhow someone else's tragedycould be so beautiful to me.source: t., jennifer. "irony." teen ink. teen ink, n.d. web. cjuly 2011.the poem is an example ofexternal conflictinternal conflictdramatic ironysituational ironymark this and returnsave and exitsubmit

In  the earth is precious, chief seattle says that man did not “weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it.” what attitude is he implicitly criticizing by saying this?