John Wilmot's Poem Upon Nothing

Jennifer Wells
Dr. Diamond
ENGL 2520: Essay #1
1 February 2017

Initial examination of the poem "Upon Nothing" by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, causes the reader to shake his head at the seemingly obscure references within the poem. What reads as a light-hearted, entertaining poem is actually a deep, introspective satire designed to make readers examine themselves in a different way. Wilmot uses the personification of Nothing to express the idea that what humanity considers important is merely a momentary aberration and ultimately unimportant in the grand scheme of everything.
The title does nothing to assuage the reader’s confusion. The reason for this confusion is simply that the title does not lend any sense of what connotation the speaker
The poem reads like a commiseration between two lost souls, with the speaker empathizing with Nothing’s plight. The speaker calls Nothing an ‘elder brother’ to darkness, which indicates a sense of brotherhood between Nothing and the speaker (line 1). This brotherhood brings the reader back to the second meaning of nothing referenced earlier. The speaker and Nothing are tied together in a lower class of citizen than everyone else. Nothing, specifically, has been reduced in status so much so that Nothing is beneath notice. This set up gives the speaker room to start discussing the many important qualities Nothing has that others do not
What is interesting is that Nothing’s qualities are shown in contrast to the qualities of the other characters in the poem. Something is a creator and the cause of Nothing’s seeming unimportance. Time and Place showed up after Something created himself. Something created life from Emptiness, kin to Nothing. Matter, Form, and Light sprang from Nothing because of Something’s need to create. Throughout the poem, the speaker names each being that Something created from Nothing, reminding Nothing that everything and everyone had to come from Nothing. The speaker does this to remind Nothing that without Nothing, Something could neither exist nor create. Nothing existed first. Each being that the speaker names, with the exceptions of Shade and Emptiness, is a part of Nothing.
Another thing the speaker does to personify Nothing is to speak of the beings at odds with Nothing. Time and Body are the main foes to Nothing. In fact, the speaker calls Body “thy foe” in line seventeen and Time a “turncoat” in line nineteen. Only something human can have an enemy. Being humanized gives Nothing importance. At the most basic, humans are the top of the food-chain and are able to communicate with higher powers. To give something human qualities, like enemies, elevates it. Elevating Nothing to human status gives Nothing the importance that humankind and Something have stripped from