The Complete Poems

Rating:
Summary: poet of love
Review: The 2nd Earl of Rochester (John Wilmot) is one of our greatest love poets in the English language. He and his work have been neglected in previous times because of the debauched lifestyle he had led and what was once perceived as the obscene nature of some of his poetry. Today, these poems are recognized as some of the most beautiful erotic verse ever written. They speak of every kind of sexual love, from unrequited love to fulfilled love, from young love to the nastalgia of remembering long-ago love, from ethereal love to barnyard lust--it's all there. Many of his more racy poems have been lost down the centuries through lack of publication, censorship and other similar factors, but much of his best work survives.

I like Rochester's poems for the colorful use of language they possess, the depths of passionate sentiment they convey, and the understanding of eroticism that is so characteristic of this great poet's work[...]

David Rehak
author of "Poems From My Bleeding Heart"

Rating:
Summary: One of the Great Neglected Ones
Review: The Earl of Rochester lived a life worthy of Tom Jones. He was indeed a deabauched libertine, slightly less worthy of censure than the Marquis de Sade. Yet he was something that De Sade was not, a great wit. Though nowhere near the range or genius of Pope or Swift, he nevertheless compiled a great body of satirical poetry in the Juvenalian tradition. His "Satyre Against Mankind," Like Swift's Houyhnhnms chapters, present human beings in their true place in nature, despite all the panegyrics and biblical references placing us at the top of the chain. If you are lover of satire, as I am, and don't mind observations that place us amongst the lower orders rather than atop some Parnassian peak, give this volume a try.