[lbo-talk] John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, was ... Porn

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Thu Feb 5 18:46:25 PST 2004


This, I think, is a very great poem; perhaps Rochester's best. It is also by most standards an obscene poem, and certainly sexually charged. But unless by pornography one means anything that mentions sex, I don't see how it could serve the uses of pornography. I certainly can't imagine it being an aid to masturbation, nor do I think Rochester ever intended it as such, and I doubt it has ever been so used.

It's obvious that almost everyone likes sexual stories, etc., and there is evidence of that from several cultures. But this is just one of thousands of sexually charged or "dirty" poems understanding of which is not enhanced or enabled by the classification of "pornography." (Incidentally, that's the point of genre classification, which has nothing to do with printed as opposed to manuscript or oral poetry, to aid in interpretation.

Carrol

The Imperfect Enjoyment

Naked she lay, clasped in my longing arms,

I filled with love, and she all over charms;

Both equally inspired with eager fire,

Melting through kindness, flaming in desire.

With arms,legs,lips close clinging to embrace,

She clips me to her breast, and sucks me to her face.

Her nimble tongue, Love's lesser lightening, played

Within my mouth, and to my thoughts conveyed

Swift orders that I should prepare to throw

The all-dissolving thunderbolt below.

My fluttering soul, sprung with the painted kiss,

Hangs hovering o'er her balmy brinks of bliss.

But whilst her busy hand would guide that part

Which should convey my soul up to her heart,

In liquid raptures I dissolve all o'er,

Melt into sperm and, and spend at every pore.

A touch from any part of her had done't:

Her hand, her foot, her very look's a cunt.

Smiling, she chides in a kind murmuring noise,

And from her body wipes the clammy joys,

When, with a thousand kisses wandering o'er

My panting bosom, "Is there then no more?"

She cries. "All this to love and rapture's due;

Must we not pay a debt to pleasure too?"

But I, the most forlorn, lost man alive,

To show my wished obedience vainly strive:

I sigh, alas! and kiss, but cannot swive.

Eager desires confound my first intent,

Succeeding shame does more success prevent,

And rage at last confirms me impotent.

Ev'n her fair hand, which might bid heat return

To frozen age, and make cold hermits burn,

Applied to my dead cinder, warms no more

Than fire to ashes could past flames restore.

Trembling, confused, despairing, limber, dry,

A wishing, weak, unmoving lump I lie.

This dart of love, whose piercing point, oft tried,

With virgin blood ten thousand maids have dyed;

Which nature still directed with such art

That it through every cunt reached every heart -

Stiffly resolved, 'twould carelessly invade

Woman or man, nor aught its fury stayed:

Where'er it pierced, a cunt it found or made -

Now languid lies in this unhappy hour,

Shrunk up and sapless like a withered flower.

Thou treacherous, base deserter of my flame,

False to my passion, fatal to my fame,

Through what mistaken magic dost thou prove

So true to lewdness, so untrue to love?

What oyster-cinder-beggar-common whore

Didst thou e'er fail in all thy life before?

When vice, disease, and scandal lead the way,

With what officious haste dost thou obey!

Like a rude, roaring hector in the streets

Who scuffles, cuffs, and justles all he meets,

But if his king or country claim his aid,

The rakehell villain shrinks and hides his head;

Ev'n so thy brutal valour is displayed,

Breaks every stew, does each small whore invade,

But when great Love the onset does command,

Base recreant to thy prince, thou dar'st not stand.

Worst part of me, and henceforth hated most,

Through all the town a common fucking-post,

On whom each whore relieves her tingling cunt

As hogs do rub themselves on gates and grunt,

May'st thou to ravenous chancres be a prey,

Or in consuming weepings waste away;

May strangury and stone thy days attend;

May'st thou ne'er piss, who did refuse to spend

When all my joys did on false thee depend.

And may ten thousand abler pricks agree

To do the wronged Corinna right for thee.



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