John Wilmot

We currently have one poem by John Wilmot. You can listen to the poem and also read it below.

Read and listen to Absent From Thee

Absent from thee I languish still;
Then ask me not, when I return?
The straying fool ’twill plainly kill
To wish all day, all night to mourn.

Dear! from thine arms then let me fly,
That my fantastic mind may prove
The torments it deserves to try
That tears my fixed heart from my love.

When, wearied with a world of woe,
To thy safe bosom I retire
where love and peace and truth does flow,
May I contented there expire,

Lest, once more wandering from that heav’n,
I fall on some base heart unblest,
Faithless to thee, false, unforgiv’n,
And lose my everlasting rest.

John Wilmot 1647 - 1680

Was an English poet and courtier of King Charles II’s Restoration court. The Restoration reacted against the “spiritual authoritarianism” of the Puritan era.^[3] Rochester embodied this new era, and he became as well known for his rakish lifestyle as his poetry, although the two were often interlinked.^[3] He died as a result of venereal disease at the age of 33.