“An Essay on Woman” (c. 1755) is an erotic poem by Thomas Potter, with contributions from John Wilkes, satirizing women.  Political humor is also part of the piece.  Dedicated to Fanny Murray, a famous courtesan, it is a parody of Alexander Pope’s “An Essay on Man”.  The poem is ninety-four lines long with an invocation and three sections and includes blanks where references are made to penises, vaginas and sexual intercourse.  Potter and Wilkes were members of the Hellfire Club, a group of libertines.  The poem was intended for circulation among the club.  In 1764 it was used in a trial in the British Parliament to expel Wilkes, a member of Parliament.  A collection of verse, including the title piece, “The Universal Prayer”, “Dying Lover to his Prick” and “Veni Creator; or, The Maid’s Prayer”, has also survived. 

“An Essay on Woman” is a deeply misogynistic poem, mocking women as licentious.

An excerpt:

Awake, my Fanny! Leave all meaner things;
This morn shall prove what rapture swiving brings!
Let us (since life can little more supply
Than just a few good fucks, and then we die)
Expatiate free o’er that loved scene of man,
A mighty maze, for mighty pricks to scan….

S. Gray

February 2026