As a lifelong Marvell fan, I can't help but be enchanted by this witty and
elegant turn on his "worm"! The figure of "Nanny Time" seems especially
wonderful relative to Age the Bride (at least to one who's female and of a
certain age herself!).
Thanks, Robin--for this AND the copy of your LOST JOCKEY, which I've just
received--Candice
on 7/10/01 12:43 PM, Robin Hamilton at [log in to unmask] wrote:
> ... after Marvell.
>
> PERSUASIONS TO ENJOY
>
> Though thoughts of you indeed aspire
> Yet love is rooted in desire,
> Impulse half-brother to the lust
> So early sprung from human dust.
>
> A reasonable plain intent
> Is all our bodies can invent,
> In which the weaker vessel cries
> For supreme unction as it dies.
>
> Our private parts, united, groan
> A sound that sighs, "I'm not alone"
> An idiom that we reserve
> For lexicons of lust - one verb.
>
> A dull language, however we
> Swerve into perversity,
> Permutate, or change position
> In strange shapes of joint coition.
>
> The sweats of mingled ardours break
> With more insistence than fears make:
> Such modest sweat is oftener found
> Than honour's detumescent sound.
>
> While Nanny Time waits at the door,
> The infant anguish still cries more,
> Oh more of this enchanting juice
> Which bathes our limbs in such excuse
>
> As relegates the marriage pact,
> The mortgage, and all moral fact
> To such reminders as may serve
> To salt with guilt a meal of love."
>
> Till Death as bridegroom, Age as bride
> Assert once more their ancient right,
> And witnessed by the sexton worm
> Remarry us within the tomb.
>
> Robin Hamilton
>
> (From _Pacts and Conjurations_)
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