sting insight into life in the Court, and is, apart from the coarse description, quite funny. Rochester attempts to write a penitential poem in To the Postboy, which shows that perhaps he is not the rakish cad that some of his poems make him out to be, as he apparently feels bad for having "outswilled Bacchus" and "swived more whores more ways than Sodom's walls...". And he now believes that "The readiest way to Hell...'s by Rochester." Rochester's use of licentiousness in the poems does not always have the desired effect on his satiric works. As mentioned earlier, sometimes he is perfectly capable of success with 'clean' lines, such as in 'Satyr'. See also Upon Nothing, which contains a frustrated open question to God. Rochester asks why inept people are allowed to govern the country:"But Nothing, why does something still permitThat sacred monarchs should in council sitWith persons highly thought at best for nothing fit,While weighty Something modestly abstainsFrom princes' coffers, and from statesman's brains,And nothing there like stately Nothing reigns?"(Upon Nothing (38-42) These poems contain questions that were being pondered by a few writers in this time, and they obviously also interested Rochester. In fact, A Satyr Against Reason and Mankind provoked a lot of responses from clergymen. It accuses them of being hypocrites who take bribes, and asks of them "Is there a churchman on who on God relies; Whose life, his faith and doctrine justifies?" It goes on to say that they are all vain and prefer a luxurious life as opposed to a pious one. It shows how angry he was with the behaviour of these clergymen who people relied on to give them spiritual guidance, but later caused Rochester to write, in To the Postboy," I have blasphemed my God and libeled Kings". This proves that his writing is not just pornography, written with the intention of making his friends laugh. It shows the serious side to John Wilmot that people at the time m...
