<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> This article compares the poetic output of the Anglo-Canadian writer Irving Layton with that of the famous Restoration rake and court poet John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. Layton himself provided the connection in his wholehearted vindication of the seventeenth century as a time of “intellectual ferment”, “criticism and impatience for change”. Layton’s debt to Nietzsche and Rochester’s to his contemporary philosopher Hobbes, respectively, provide the thread through which a striking similarity of values and thematic concerns, of the quality of the amatory experience described; of their criticism of mankind, its institutions and even of themselves, on the one hand, and, on the other, of shared poetic formulas, sources of inspiration (classical, Elizabethan, satiric) and idiom string together in creative work that displays quite striking affinities, the product of similar vital stances. </p></abstract>

This article compares the poetic output of the Anglo-Canadian writer Irving Layton with that of the famous Restoration rake and court poet John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. Layton himself provided the connection in his wholehearted vindication of the seventeenth century as a time of “intellectual ferment”, “criticism and impatience for change”. Layton’s debt to Nietzsche and Rochester’s to his contemporary philosopher Hobbes, respectively, provide the thread through which a striking similarity of values and thematic concerns, of the quality of the amatory experience described; of their criticism of mankind, its institutions and even of themselves, on the one hand, and, on the other, of shared poetic formulas, sources of inspiration (classical, Elizabethan, satiric) and idiom string together in creative work that displays quite striking affinities, the product of similar vital stances.

Two Pole-Vaulters of Their Times: The Poetry of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, and Irving Layton

Lecturer in English Literature at the University of La Laguna

Prague Journal of English Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

This article compares the poetic output of the Anglo-Canadian writer Irving Layton with that of the famous Restoration rake and court poet John Wilmot, Earl of...

Two Pole-Vaulters of Their Times: The Poetry of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, and Irving Layton

Published Online: Sep 17, 2016

Page range: 27 - 51

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/pjes-2016-0002

Keywords
Dissention, classical/Elizabethan/Restoration/French seventeenth-century literatures, Anglo-Canadian 20th century literature, lyricists, satirists, trauma, organic poetry, Ubermensch/libertine/rake/true wit/hero vs. Massenmensch/ clown/outcast.

© Faculty of Education, Charles University

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Two Pole-Vaulters of Their Times: The Poetry of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, and Irving Layton

Published Online: Sep 17, 2016

Page range: 27 - 51

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/pjes-2016-0002

KeywordsDissention, classical/Elizabethan/Restoration/French seventeenth-century literatures, Anglo-Canadian 20th century literature, lyricists, satirists, trauma, organic poetry, Ubermensch/libertine/rake/true wit/hero vs. Massenmensch/ clown/outcast.

© Faculty of Education, Charles University

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Dissention, classical/Elizabethan/Restoration/French seventeenth-century literatures, Anglo-Canadian 20th century literature, lyricists, satirists, trauma, organic poetry, Ubermensch/libertine/rake/true wit/hero vs. Massenmensch/ clown/outcast.