T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Selfishness
By Alfred Bryan (18711958)(From Pagan Love Lyrics, 1921) SHE whom I love must be above reproach; | |
Must veil her face to all admiring eyes; | |
Must droop her lids to all admiring lovers; | |
Must not betray the beauty of her limbs | |
To him and him and him and him. | 5 |
She must be all our mothers must have been, | |
And all we think our sisters are | |
From all the crowd apart, too pure to mar. | |
But when alone with me—then she may be: | |
She may be lewd as Messaline was lewd. | 10 |
She may be nude, and still remain a prude. | |
’Tis nothing wrong that she may do with me; | |
She’s still a woman, chaste, with modesty. | |
But let her be of these with other men, | |
God pity her, for she is,—well, what they? | 15 |
A harlot, scarlet, crimsoned courtesan per se | |
She’s worse than that if she’s not true to me. | |