John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

Through the dying energumene’s rictus,
the aerolite god of Emesa,
announced it was the Sol Invictus,
adored by Elagabalus Caesar.

The cleric and Hobbes alike, had vouched
for a politics of the deathbed,
for one so adept at those of the couch,
now putrescent, and thoroughly bled.

What a show from that repentant centaur -
the Lord Protector of Gomorrah !
The patient tore on like a meteor,
having broken the Laws of Noah,

until all hope landed on Death, perplexed.
Our shooting star in the Wild West of sex.

Oxford - 30 July 2018

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647 -80) was a poet, wit. and war hero of Charles II’s court. He is known for his satirical and erotic verse. Johnny Depp played him brilliantly in the film The Libertine (2005). Perhaps his best role.

Anne Wharton, was his niece, who is also the subject of one of the poems here. Adderbury House, Adderbury was his seat. He died at Woodstock on 26 July 1680 (O.S.). A Hobbesian, he was nonetheless converted by Gilbert Burnet, later Bishop of Salisbury on his deathbed. The presumption is that he died of syphilis-related causes.

I originally entitled this poem Sonnet on a Dying Sun.