Comment by robot-wrangler

3 months ago

> I've heard that for humans too, indecent proposals are more likely to penetrate protective constraints when couched in poetry

Had we but world enough and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44688/to-his-coy-mist...

7 comments

robot-wrangler

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internet_points  3 months ago 

    My echoing song; then worms shall try
    That long-preserved virginity,
    And your quaint honour turn to dust,
    And into ashes all my lust;

hah, barely couched at all

  • gjm11  3 months ago

    Note that at the time this was written the word "quaint" had both (1) roughly its modern meaning -- unusual and quirky, with side-orders of prettiness and (at the time) ingenuity, fastidiousness, and pride -- and also (2) a rather different meaning, equivalent to a shorter word ending in -nt.

    So, even less couched than some readers might realise.

  • tclancy  3 months ago

    Subtlety was not over-trained back then. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50721/the-vine

    • internet_points  2 months ago

      Nice. I tried to look up when the poem was written and came across

      https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/lust-and-resigna...

      > it is the word “stock” that remains the most meticulous justification for the virtuous intent of the poet. The word “stock,” in addition to a hard stalk, is a term used in the art of grafting, a process by which two plants are woven into each other and continue to grow mutually. The “stock” (23), then, is the true nature of the speaker's “mortal part”

      hahahah that's one way to see it, if you want to "redeem" the author (just completely ignore the more overt imagery of the soft vine turning into a hard stalk). To me the ending just looked like yet another lascivious pun :-)

  • delichon  2 months ago 

      Why don't we do it in the road?
  Why don't we do it in the road?
  No one will be watching us.
  Why don't we do it in the road?

  • svat  3 months ago

    Don't miss the response “His Coy Mistress To Mr. Marvell” (by A. D. Hope): https://allpoetry.com/His-Coy-Mistress-To-Mr.-Marvell

        Since you have world enough and time
    Sir, to admonish me in rhyme,
    Pray Mr Marvell, can it be
    You think to have persuaded me?
    
    […]
    
    But-- well I ask: to draw attention
    To worms in-- what I blush to mention,
    And prate of dust upon it too!
    Sir, was this any way to woo?