Poetry and Sex Essay -- Sex Sexuality Poetry Poems Literature Essays

Poetry and SexSince the beginning of human existence, there has been once use,one instinct, one single compulsion that we cannot escape. Some maycall it necessary others say its a gift. It can be controlling,enlightening but its oh so powerful. It isnt the emergency for food,safety or shelter. It isnt love nor greed nor vanity, but sex, ladiesand gentlemen.With the evolution of human communication poets have been using thepower of words to describe the practice of sex, and the emotions thatcome with it. As a guest speaker invited to this years festival, Ihave explored how sex is expressed through poetry from a multitude ofcultures and eras. It has compel apparent that the traditions andvalues of a society shapes the form, right down to the style oflanguage and words used, of poetry from its respective era. Whilevalues have and leave cut across to change, sex is a universal practice,and therefore a universal theme of poets the world over.To demonstrate this, I will analyze three poems Kubla caravansary, bySamuel Coleridge, Sexual Healing, by Marvin Gaye and David Ritz andAdultery by Carol Ann Duffy. Although all poems have the samecentral theme of sex, the way they express it differs quite radically.In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decreeWhere Alph, the sacred river, ranThrough caverns measureless to manDown to a sunless sea.These are the opening lines of Kubla Khan, in which the era of itspoet is make clear. Samuel Coleridge was from the Romantic period, anera in which freedom, simplicity and the humble life were reflectedthrough poetry. Above all else though, Romantic poetry featured astrong heraldic bearing of nature, wild and untamed, the oppos... ...ncerning sex becamemore open in manner as the years went by. The protest against sexualbrutality in Sexual Healing would sure enough not have been acceptableeven two decades before its time, let alone 200 years. Furtherexposure to lust and sex in the media lead to poems such as Adulteryb eing written. This poems acceptance in contemporary society displaysa progression of international maturity in regards to sex, but at thesame time the loss of modesty. Ultimately, all poems have differingrepresentations of the same theme, which is shaped by the society ofits era.William Wordsworth once said that poetry is the unwritten overflowof powerful feelings. Lust and sex are among the most powerfulfeelings that human beings are capable of, and there is no doubt thatpoets will continue express their passion, elation or anguish on thissubject.