"And Never Know the Joy": Sex and the Erotic in English Poetry(36 DQR Studies in Literature)

“And Never Know the Joy” : Sex and the Erotic in English Poetry promises the reader much to enjoy and to reflect on: riddles and sex games; the grammar of relationships; the cunning psychology of bodily fantasies; sexuality as the ambiguous performance of words; the allure of music and its instruments; the erotics of death and remembrance, are just a few of the initial themes that emerge from the twenty-five articles to be found in this volume, with many an invitation “to seize the day”. Reproduction, pregnancy, and fear; discredited and degraded libertines; the ventriloquism of sexual objects; the ease with which men are reduced to impotence by the carnality of women; orgasm and melancholy; erotic mysticism and religious sexuality; the potency and dangers of fruit and flowers; the delights of the recumbent male body and of dancing girls; the fertile ritual use of poetic texts; striptease and revolution; silent women reclaimed as active vessels, are amongst the many engaging topics that emerge out of the ongoing and entertaining scholarly discussion of sex and eroticism in English poetry.

Table of Contents:
Preface Janine ROGERS: Riddling Erotic Identity in Early English Lyrics Kevin Teo Kia CHOONG: Bodies of Knowledge: Embodying Riotous Performance in the Harley Lyrics Luisella CAON: The Pronouns of Love and Sex: Thou and Ye Among Lovers in The Canterbury Tales Bart VELDHOEN: Reason versus Nature in Dunbar’s “Tretis of the Twa Mariit Wemen and the Wedo” Glyn PURSGLOVE: Prick-Song Ditties: Musical Metaphor in the Bawdy Verse of the Early Modern Period Mark LLEWELLYN: “Cease Thy Wanton Lust”: Thomas Randolph’s Elegy, the Cult of Venetia, and the Possibilities of Classical Sex Rebecca C. POTTER: The Nymph’s Reply Nine Months Later Tracy WENDT LEMASTER: Lowering the Libertine: Feminism in Rochester’s “The Imperfect Enjoyment” Kari Boyd Mcbride: “Upon a Little Lady”: Gender and Desire in Early Modern English Lyrics Lisa Marie LIPIPIPATVONG: “Freeborn Joy”: Sexual Expression and Power in William Blake’s Visions of the Daughters of Albion Nowell MARSHALL: Of Melancholy and Mimesis: Social Bond(age)s in Visions of the Daughters of Albion Monika LEE: “Happy Copulation”: Revolutionary Sexuality in Blake and Shelley Daniel BRASS: “Bursting Joy’s Grape” in Keats’ Odes C.C. BARFOOT: “In This Strang Labourinth How Shall I Turne?”: Erotic Symmetry in Four Female Sonnet Sequences Britta ZANGEN: Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”: The Eroticism of Female Mystics Fahrï ÖZ: “To Take Were to Purloin”: Sexuality in the Narrative Poems of Christina Rossetti J.D. BALLAM: Renaissance Erotic in the Poetry of John Addington Symonds R. van BRONSWIJK: The Brilliance of Gas-Lit Eyes: Arthur Symons’ Erotic Auto-Voyeurism Observed Andrew HARRISON: The Erotic in D.H. Lawrence’s Early Poetry Nephie J. CHRISTODOULIDES: Triangulation of Desire in H.D.’s Hymen Peg ALOI: “Smile, O Voluptuous Cool-Breath’d Earth”: Erotic Imagery and Context in Contemporary Ritual Authorship Wim TIGGES: Two Tongues in One Mouth: Erotic Elements in Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill’s Irish Poetry and Its English Translations Sandie BYRNE: Sex in the “Sick, Sick Body Politic”: Tony Harrison’s Fruit Cheryl Alexander MALCOLM: (Un)Dressing Black Nationalism: Nikki Giovanni’s (Counter)Revolutionary Ethics Wolfgang GÖRTSCHACHER: Biblio-Erotic and Jewish Erotic Configurations in Georgia Scott’s The Penny Bride Notes on Contributors Index I: Selected Motifs, Topics, Themes Index II: Authors, Texts and Publications, Selected Proper Names