# Sexiest Poetry **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 21, 2003, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486 "2003-05-21T03:16:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nichol\_storm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Nichol\_storm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nichol_storm)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/1 "2003-05-21T03:16:55Z")
Percy Bysshe Shelley’s [“Love’s Philosophy”](http://www.online-literature.com/shelley_percy/665/) makes me want to run off and make love in some secluded forest hideaway. Unfortunately, this feeling always passes once I start wondering about bugs and sand getting into various private bits, but anyway. ☹ So, what poem gives you that tingly feeling in your naughty bits? .:Nichol:. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/2 "2003-05-21T03:23:06Z")
Am I the only one who thought the OP was _sexist_ poetry? [Nigel Tuffnel] What’s wrong with being sexy? [/NT] ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/3 "2003-05-21T03:32:37Z")
[This bit](http://65.107.211.206/cpace/science/topolit/Cyberiad.html) from Stanislaw Lem’s “Cyberiad” can be quite powerful under the right circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/4 "2003-05-21T09:35:13Z")
Oh My America! My Newfoundland! no? ---
**Author:** ![bifar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@bifar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bifar)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/5 "2003-05-21T09:53:15Z")
Keats’ _The Eve of St Agnes_, without any doubt. It has a striptease in it! > [@](#): > > her vespers done, > Of all its wreathed pearls her hair she frees; > Unclasps her warmed jewels one by one; > Loosens her fragrant boddice; by degrees > Her rich attire creeps rustling to her knees: That’s it. That’s all you’re getting. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/6 "2003-05-21T11:30:27Z")
Depends how straightforwardly intense you’re feeling about it. If you want to skip the appetizer and go for the main course, read Pablo Neruda’s _Twenty Love Poems and a Desperate Song._ Even if you don’t know Spanish, get the bilingual edition so you can read it out loud and get some of the melody and cadences. ---
**Author:** ![Rapunzel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Rapunzel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rapunzel)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/7 "2003-05-21T13:19:47Z")
This one isn’t about thrashing limbs, but for an understated little verse try Sara Teasdale’s ‘The Look’. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/8 "2003-05-21T16:32:00Z")
I don’t know if Allen Ginsburg’s “please master” counts, since it’s actually _erotic_ poetry rather than just sexy… but really, any of the poems Tom’s written me. He once wrote me a delicious little sestina involving breakfast coffee and salacious things done instead of it. ---
**Author:** ![bayonet1976](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bayonet1976](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bayonet1976)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/9 "2003-05-21T16:49:16Z")
Garcia-Lorca’s “La Casada Infiel” is the only piece of poetry that never fails to make my breath short and my skin flushed. I don’t know if there are any translations but the original spanish can be found [here](http://www.analitica.com/bitblioteca/lorca/romancero.asp#Casada) . And I quote: > [@](#): > > En las últimas esquinas > toqué sus pechos dormidos, > y se me abrieron de pronto > como ramos de jacintos. > El almidón de su enagua me > sonaba en el oído, > como una pieza de seda > rasgada por diez cuchillos And: > [@](#): > > Pasadas las zarzamoras, > los juncos y los espinos, > bajo su mata de pelo > hice un hoyo sobre el limo. > Yo me quité la corbata. > Ella se quitó el vestido. > Yo el cinturón con revólver > Ella sus cuatro corpiños. > Ni nardos ni caracolas > tienen el cutis tan fino, > ni los cristales con luna > relumbran con ese brillo. > Sus muslos se me escapaban > como peces sorprendidos, > la mitad llenos de lumbre, > la mitad llenos de frío. > Aquella noche corrí > el mejor de los caminos, > montado en potra de nácar > sin bridas y sin estribos. Gotta go, there’s cold shower with my name on it somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Cosmopolitan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/94ad74/32.png) [@Cosmopolitan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cosmopolitan)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/10 "2003-05-21T18:10:59Z")
I’ve _written_ some sexy poetry, if that counts. 😉 Made my creative writing professor blush, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Albert\_Rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Albert\_Rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albert_Rose)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/11 "2003-05-21T18:24:50Z")
My fiance likes the “Man from Nantucket” series. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/12 "2003-05-21T18:37:18Z")
[To His Coy Mistress](http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/marvell/coy.htm) by Andrew Marvel. BTW, the use of the word “quaint” was a very vulgar pun at the time. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/13 "2003-05-21T19:46:58Z")
Max kudos to **bifar** for choosing _The Eve Of St Agnes_. It’s not only one of my favourite poems, it’s also one of my favourite examples of human genius… right up there with Michaelangelo’s _David_ and Bach’s _Brandenburg Concertos_ and George’s _“It’s not you it’s me?”_ speech from Seinfeld. When you look at the incredibly demanding structure of the poem, and its considerable length, you realise it’s really one majestic flourish from Keats - a kind of ‘Go on then, let’s see anyone match _this_’. Parts of _Agnes_ are very sexy indeed. In fact Keats’s publishers refused to handle it because they felt it was indecent, which - by the standards of the day - it was. He was faced with the problem of stating that the two leads characters consumated their relationship at a time when there was simply no way he could just come right out and say it, and I think his solution is magnificent and beautiful and, in the spirit of the OP, very sexy. I’m not going to give it away here. It’s worth looking up for those who are interested. However, my vote would have to go to Donne’s _The Sun Rising_. Donne was the original ‘randy vicar’, a supposed ‘man of God’ who would, to use a modern phrase, shag a barber’s floor. _The Sun Rising_ is basically his attempt to capture the feeling of ‘the morning after the shag the night before’, while you’re both still in bed and barely awake. And it’s pretty darn good. In years long gone by, I used to like reciting it on, ahem, ‘appropriate’ mornings. ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/14 "2003-05-21T21:33:00Z")
Another for Pablo Neruda: The Cuban blue of midnight is your color, Naked I trace stars and tendrils in your skin. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/15 "2003-05-21T22:08:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Squink \* > \*\*[This bit](http://65.107.211.206/cpace/science/topolit/Cyberiad.html) from Stanislaw Lem’s “Cyberiad” can be quite powerful under the right circumstances. \*\* A friend asked if I wanted to do a reading at her wedding. I chose two stanzas and changed from the first person to the third. ---
**Author:** ![Mastema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/94ad74/32.png) [@Mastema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mastema)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/16 "2003-05-22T00:25:01Z")
Sex Without Love How do they do it, the ones who make love without love? Beautiful as dancers, Gliding over each other like ice-skaters over the ice, fingers hooked inside each other’s bodies, faces red as steak, wine, wet as the children at birth, whose mothers are going to give them away. How do they come to the come to the come to the God come to the still waters, and not love the one who came there with them, light rising slowly as steam off their joined skin? These are the true religious, the purists, the pros, the ones who will not accept a false Messiah, love the priest instead of the God. They do not mistake the lover for their own pleasure, they are like great runners: they know they are alone with the road surface, the cold, the wind, the fit of their shoes, their over-all cardio vascular health–just factors, like the partner in the bed, and not the truth, which is the single body alone in the universe against its own best time. ``` -- Sharon Olds ``` ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/17 "2003-05-22T01:05:50Z")
I write this kind of stuff all the time, so here’s a sample offered with all due humility. Not on a par with the greats, of course, but it’s fun to write and to send to suitable recipients. **The Considerate Lover** In that I love, I seek your finest self In heart and mind content, and duly rested Untroubled, calm, complete in vital health No want of food or water ever tested Right is this care, for if a frailness rake The heart to which mine’s linked, then so projects That grievance into me, as does the lake One bird of broken wing make twin reflect Thus I ensure my love not interfere With nourishment, nor stop you fixing thirst But spare a thought to seek a path sincere To render love yet put your wholeness first Hence kiss I fullest deep your lips, yet think To leave you free the while to eat or drink © Ianzin ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/18 "2003-05-22T01:21:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by irishgirl \* > \*\*Oh My America! > My Newfoundland! > \*\* You’re a John Donne fan too? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![SparrowHawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac8455/32.png) [@SparrowHawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SparrowHawk)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/19 "2003-05-22T01:47:56Z")
[That’s](http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/elegy20.htm) the one I was going to pick, too. ---
**Author:** ![Rapunzel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Rapunzel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rapunzel)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486/20 "2003-05-22T08:17:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ianzin \* > \*\*I write this kind of stuff all the time, so here’s a sample offered with all due humility. Not on a par with the greats, of course, but it’s fun to write and to send to suitable recipients. > \*\* Well I think it’s wonderful, Ianzin. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexiest-poetry/176486.md?page=2)