Comment by 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
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
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.
I remember seeing it in Sandman spelled "quoint" (by Shakespeare) https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.comics.dc.vertigo/c/Qi2...
Subtlety was not over-trained back then. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50721/the-vine
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 :-)
Don't miss the response “His Coy Mistress To Mr. Marvell” (by A. D. Hope): https://allpoetry.com/His-Coy-Mistress-To-Mr.-Marvell