“And Never Know the Joy”: Sex and the Erotic in English Poetry

‘”And Never Know the Joy”: Sex and the Erotic in English Poetry’ promises the reader much to enjoy and to reflect 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. Preface Janine Riddling Erotic Identity in Early English Lyrics Kevin Teo Kia Bodies of Embodying Riotous Performance in the Harley Lyrics Luisella The Pronouns of Love and ‘Thou’ and ‘Ye’ Among Lovers in ‘The Canterbury Tales’ Bart Reason versus Nature in Dunbar s Tretis of the Twa Mariit Wemen and the Wedo Glyn Prick-Song Musical Metaphor in the Bawdy Verse of the Early Modern Period Mark Cease Thy Wanton Lust : Thomas Randolph s Elegy, the Cult of Venetia, and the Possibilities of Classical Sex Rebecca C. The Nymph s Reply Nine Months Later Tracy WENDT Lowering the Feminism in Rochester s The Imperfect Enjoyment Kari Boyd Upon a Little Lady : Gender and Desire in Early Modern English Lyrics Lisa Marie Freeborn Joy : Sexual Exp