Rochester - Selected Poems - Oxford

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very good selection

This is a very good little edition, containing most of Rochester's best poems. I have a now out-of-print Penguin Complete Rochester edition, but wanted a more portably-sized volume and was also interested in what a new editor had to say. I was very pleased on all counts.

Rochester's popular reputation is generally based more on his behaviour than on his poetry. It is true that he was a spectacular rake and that his debauchery leading to an early death was the stuff of legend. This is often reflected in his work, but there is far more to Rochester than that. This is a very good selection of all shades of his poetry, from the frankly filthy (but often amusing) to the introspective and rather deep. For example, this from Upon Nothing (although I admit it lacks mathematical rigour) is a prescient summation of our current view of the origin of the universe:
"Ere time and place were, time and place were not,
When primitive Nothing Something straight begot,
Then all proceeded from the great united - What?"

Do be warned (if you don't know already) that many of these poems are not for the faint of heart or prudish. They often deal frankly with all sorts of sexual practices, and use some very blunt language including the c-word (used to brilliant comic effect in The Imperfect Enjoyment, for example), but this is fine, and sometimes genuinely tender and thoughtful poetry.

There is a scholarly and readable introduction by Paul Davis which I very much appreciated, a helpful chronology of Rochester's life and full notes on the texts. I think this is an excellent book for anyone looking for somewhere to start with Rochester or for anyone who wants a well-edited selection, however familiar you may be with him. Very warmly recommended.