A Satire Against Mankind (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester
- First Published: 1679
- Type of Work: Satire
- Genres: Satire, Poetry
- Subjects: Philosophy or philosophers, Power, personal or social, Religion, God, Good and evil, Human behavior, Senses or sensation, Reason or reasoning, Vanity
The Poem
“A Satire Against Mankind,” sometimes called “A Satire Against Reason and Mankind” or simply “Satire,” is one of John Wilmot, earl of Rochester’s best-known poems. Written in iambic pentameter with a slightly irregular rhyme scheme (rhyming couplets occasionally give way to triplets), it is a humorous but bitter denunciation of human nature and all its vain pretensions to wisdom and virtue. The first forty-five lines of the poem form a general reflection on the failings of reason, which misleads and deceives people. People believe themselves to be...
[The entire page is 1496 words long]
