... 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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