SOURCE: Paulson, Kristoffer F. “Pun Intended: Rochester's ‘Upon Nothing.’” English Language Notes 9 no. 2 (December, 1971): 118-21.

In the following essay, Paulson charges that most critics have treated Upon Nothing with too great seriousness, arguing that one needs to understand the bawdy pun on “what” in the second stanza to appreciate its wit and tone of exuberant irreverence.

Critics of the satire Upon Nothing, written by John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, agree that it is a paradoxical and witty poem, a profound satire based on skeptical philosophy, and a parody of the creation myth found in the first chapter of Genesis.¹ It is witty and profound and it is a parody of Genesis, but most of the very perceptive commentaries on Upon Nothing have treated the satire with a singular solemnity, and most critics have failed to see the laughter, whether cosmic or not, co-existing with the serious skepticism...