A small portrait of a big man, you can recall

from his russet cheeks his well-fed life spent hunting

and shooting and moulding the moor

with walled gardens, follies and sheep.

I have to be truthful, he’s a handsome man.

but I need to tell you about sugar money

and his ship in the Atlantic slave trade,

but too much truth is too painful to bear.

Although times have changed, men still marry for money

and viewers may be asking, or maybe not,

about his half smile and him with a wife

that died too young, no legitimate heir.

Men of his time write in thick biographies

of his energy, good works, care of his workmen.

There’s just one phrase that shows his true colours,

the one about his “amours with servant girls”.

And I wonder if I have your permission

To interpret the nature of consent.