T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
April
By Edward Carpenter (18441929)(From Towards Democracy, 1883) O APRIL, month of Nymphs and Fauns and Cupids, | |
Month of the Sungod’s kisses, Earth’s sweet passion, | |
Of fanciful winds and showers; | |
Apollo, glorious over hill and dale | |
Ethereally striding; grasses springing | 5 |
Rapt to his feet, buds bursting, flowers out-breathing | |
Their liberated hearts in love to him. | |
[The little black-cap garrulous on the willow | |
Perching so prim, the crested chaffinch warbling, | |
And primrose and celandine, anemone and daisy, | 10 |
Starring the tender herb which lambs already nibble.] | |
Month of all-gathering warmth, | |
Of breathless moments, hotter and hotter growing— | |
Smiles turned to fire, kisses to fierce earnest— | |
Of sultry swoons, pauses, and strange suspense | 15 |
(Clouds and dæmonic thunder through the blue vault threatingly rolling); | |
Then the delirious up-break—the great fountains of the deep, in Sex, | |
Loosened to pouring failing rushing waters; | |
Shafts of wild light; and Sky and Earth in one another’s arms | |
Melted, and all of Heaven spent in streams of love | 20 |
Towards the Loved one. | |