The Erotic Spirit

ANONYMOUS EGYPTIAN (ca. 15th–10th centuries BCE)

The little sycamore she planted

My lover is a lotus blossom

He is the love-wolf

SAPPHO (6th century BCE)

He is almost a god, a man beside you

Eros seizes and shakes my very soul

ANAKREON (ca. 570 BCE)

Weaving a garland long ago

ASKLEPIADOS (ca. 320 BCE)

Think how unspeakably sweet

Didyme waved an olive branch at me

from THE SONG OF SONGS (ca. 3rd century BCE)

PRAXILLA (ca. 2nd century BCE?)

Peeking in through

ANONYMOUS GREEK (ca. 2nd century BCE?)

Whether I see you now

RUFINUS (ca. 2nd century BCE?)

Her foot sparkled like silver

How could I have known

MARCUS ARGENTARIUS (ca. 60 BCE)

I can’t bear to watch your hips

Her perfect naked breast

CATULLUS (ca. 84–54 BCE)

He is like a god

My woman says she’d rather have me

Sweet sparrow, my lover’s pet

Your sins have brought my mind so low

My lovely, sweet Ipsithilla

PHILODEMOS (fl. 75–35 BCE)

Xanthippe, singing at her lyre

OVID (43 BCE–17 CE)

Elegy to His Mistress

PETRONIUS ARBITER (d. 66 CE)

Doing, a Filthy Pleasure Is, and Short

TZU YEH (4th century)

Busy in the Spring

AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS (ca. 531–580)

Beautiful Melite, in the throes of middle age

COMETAS CHARTULARIUS (ca. 6th century)

Phyllis, loving Demophoon

PAULUS SILENTIARIUS (d. ca. 575)

And there lay the lovers, lip-locked

Come, give me kisses, Rhodope

Take off your clothes, my love!

Even clothed in wrinkles, dear Philinna

LI PO (701–762)

Resentment Near the Jade Steps

Longing for Someone

OTOMO NO YAKAMOCHI (718–785)

Late evening finally comes

When my wife left home

ANONYMOUS CHINESE (T’ang dynasty)

YUAN CHEN (779–831)

LI HO (791–817)

ARIWARA NO NARIHIRA (825–880)

Is that the same moon?

LI HSUN (855–930)

To the Tune: The Wine Spring (“Eternal autumn rain—”)

To the Tune: The Wine Spring (“Rain falls . . .”)

ANONYMOUS JAPANESE (10th century)

Early morning glows

As night follows night

ONO NO KOMACHI (fl. 9th century)

I long for him most

IZUMI SHIKIBU (970–1030)

My black hair tangled

When I think of you

LIU YUNG (987–1053)

SAMUEL HA-NAGID (993–1056)

I’d sell my soul for that fawn

That’s it—I love that fawn

OU-YANG HSIU (1007–1072)

Faint Thunder Drifts beneath the Willow

The Pool Is Full of Autumn Sky, Rippled by Gentle Breezes

Deep, Deep in the Shade of the Court

SU TUNG-P’O (1037–1101)

Remembering My Wife

LI CH’ING-CHAO (1084–1154)

Spring at Wu Ling

Butterflies Love Flowers

The Washing Stream

MAHADEVIYAKKA (12th century)

On Her Decision to Stop Wearing Clothes

JELALUDDIN RUMI (1207–1273)

You that love Lovers

When I see Your Face

What I want is to see your face

HSU TSAI-SSU (ca. 1300)

FRANCESCO PETRARCH (1304–1374)

If constancy in love . . .

Love delivers to me its sweetest thoughts

IKKYU SOJUN (1394–1481)

Face to Face with My Lover on Daito’s Birthday

Song of the Dream Garden

My Hand Is Lady Mori’s Hand

Night Talk in a Dream Chamber

My Love’s Dark Place Is Fragrant like Narcissus

KABIR (1398–1448)

Give up erotic games, Kabir

Sometimes, everywhere I look

VIDYAPATI (15th century)

MIRABAI (1498–1550)

Don’t block my way, friend

Having wet me with love

A glimpse of your body

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564–1616)

BIHARI (1595–1664)

As if to lift my babe-in-arms

When I found her in the bathing pool

All day she studies her new love-bite in the mirror

Loveliness beyond words

ROBERT HERRICK (1591–1674)

Delight in Disorder

Clothes Do but Cheat and Cozen Us

Upon the Nipples of Julia’s Breast

To His Mistress

ANNE BRADSTREET (1612–1672)

To My Dear and Loving Husband

SE PRAJ (17th century)

Your breasts will not fall

ANDREW MARVELL (1621–1678)

To His Coy Mistress

JOHN DRYDEN (1631–1700)

Song for a Girl

SOR JUANA INÉS DE LA CRUZ (1651–1695)

Which Contains a Fantasy Satisfied with a Love Befitting It

JONATHAN SWIFT (1667–1745)

WILLIAM BLAKE (1757–1827)

The Question Answer’d

JOHN KEATS (1795–1821)

Sharing Eve’s Apple

ANONYMOUS SOMALI (ca. 19th century)

Woman’s Love Song

WALT WHITMAN (1819–1892)

from I Sing the Body Electric

from I Sing the Body Electric

A Woman Waits for Me

I Am He That Aches with Love

CHARLES BAUDELAIRE (1821–1867)

ANONYMOUS CHINOOK (ca. 1888)

EMILY DICKINSON (1830–1886)

ANONYMOUS KWAKIUTL (ca. 1896)

Fires run through my body . . .

ANONYMOUS INUIT (ca. 1894–97)

Oxaitoq’s Song

PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR (1872–1906)

Passion and Love

ANTONIO MACHADO (1875–1939)

If I were a poet

YOSANO AKIKO (1878–1942)

Spring quickly passes

A thousand strands

Are you still longing

ANNA AKHMATOVA (1889–1966)

FEDERICO GARCÍA-LORCA (1898–1936)

The Unfaithful Wife

PABLO NERUDA (1904–1973)

Body of a woman

KENNETH REXROTH (1905–1982)

Sottoportico San Zaccaria

SA‘ID ‘AQL (b. 1912)

More Beautiful than Your Eyes

THOMAS MCGRATH (1916–1990)

A Coal Fire in Winter

HAYDEN CARRUTH (b. 1921)

DENISE LEVERTOV (b. 1923)

CAROLYN KIZER (b. 1925)

ROBERT CREELEY (b. 1926)

A Form of Women

ADRIENNE RICH (b. 1929)

from Twenty-one Love Poems

ROBERTO SOSA (b. 1930)

The Most Ancient Names of Fire

ROBERT KELLY (b. 1935)

Poem for Easter

LUCILLE CLIFTON (b. 1936)

the women you are accustomed to

song at midnight

JAAN KAPLINSKI (b. 1941)

Night comes and extinguishes the numbers . . .

SAM HAMILL (b. 1943)

Ten Thousand Sutras

GIOCONDA BELLI (b. 1948)

from Brief Lessons in Eroticism I

OLGA BROUMAS (b. 1949)

For Every Heart

MAURYA SIMON (b. 1950)

Shiva’s Prowess

DORIANNE LAUX (b. 1952)

Notes on the Poets

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