The Academy of American Poets
Home | View Cart | Log In 
Subscribe | More Info 
Find a Poet or Poem
Advanced Search >
FURTHER READING
Poems by William Cartwright
Falsehood
To Chloe: Who for his sake wished herself younger
Poems About Passion and Sex
Aubade: Some Peaches, After Storm
by Carl Phillips
Erotic Energy
by Chase Twichell
Libido
by Rupert Brooke
Me in Paradise
by Brenda Shaughnessy
Novel
by Arthur Rimbaud
Privilege of Being
by Robert Hass
Safe Sex
by Donald Hall
Sex
by Michael Ryan
The Elephant is Slow to Mate
by D.H. Lawrence
To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
by Robert Herrick
Adopt a Poet | Add to Notebook | E-mail to Friend | Print
No Platonic Love  
by William Cartwright

Tell me no more of minds embracing minds, 
     And hearts exchang'd for hearts; 
That spirits spirits meet, as winds do winds, 
     And mix their subt'lest parts; 
That two unbodied essences may kiss, 
And then like Angels, twist and feel one Bliss. 

I was that silly thing that once was wrought 
     To practise this thin love; 
I climb'd from sex to soul, from soul to thought; 
     But thinking there to move, 
Headlong I rolled from thought to soul, and then 
From soul I lighted at the sex again. 

As some strict down-looked men pretend to fast, 
     Who yet in closets eat; 
So lovers who profess they spririts taste, 
     Feed yet on grosser meat; 
I know they boast they souls to souls convey, 
Howe'r they meet, the body is the way. 

Come, I will undeceive thee, they that tread 
     Those vain aerial ways 
Are like young heirs and alchemists misled 
     To waste their wealth and days, 
For searching thus to be for ever rich, 
They only find a med'cine for the itch.
Larger TypeLarger Type | Home | Help | Contact Us | Privacy Policy Copyright © 1997 - 2008 by The Academy of American Poets.