This all began on Aaron's "Corinna" thread on GT. Here is the poem I mentioned thereon...
From the Heart
Corinna’s reply to the Earl of Rochester*
Small liberties, if they be deftly taken,
Do such extreme of sweet delight awaken
That they do put to shame the greater act
As doth the poet’s touch the unvarnished fact.
The meeting of like minds may thus discover
The bliss of bodies that amuse each other
And with compassion and good humour see
The simpler pleasures of maturity –
Of him who orchestrates his admiration
Without the urgency of procreation;
Of her whose greatest joy is to express
Desire’s strength through wisdom’s gentleness.
For them, the re-enactment of convention
Is sweetly spiced with exquisite invention
And while hot youth with ramrod haste discovers
The fleeting pleasure of more ardent lovers,
To me it seems the less insistent part
Doth move the swifter to engage my heart.
*After his poem “The Imperfect Enjoyment” (the one Johnny Depp quotes from in The Libertine).
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