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

Poetry and Sex Since the beginning of human existence, there has been once practice, one instinct, one single obsession that we cannot escape. Some may call it necessary; others say it’s a gift. It can be controlling, enlightening but it’s oh so powerful. It isn’t the need for food, safety or shelter. It isn’t love nor greed nor vanity, but sex, ladies and gentlemen. With the evolution of human communication poets have been using the power of words to describe the practice of sex, and the emotions that come with it. As a guest speaker invited to this years festival, I have explored how sex is expressed through poetry from a multitude of cultures and eras. It has become apparent that the traditions and values of a society shapes the form, right down to the style of language and words used, of poetry from its respective era. While values have and will continue 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 Khan,’ by Samuel Coleridge, ‘Sexual Healing,’ by Marvin Gaye and David Ritz and ‘Adultery’ by Carol Ann Duffy. Although all poems have the same central theme of sex, the way they express it differs quite radically. In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. These are the opening lines of Kubla Khan, in which the era of its poet is made clear. Samuel Coleridge was from the Romantic period, an era in which freedom, simplicity and the humble life were reflected through poetry. Above all else though, Romantic poetry featured a strong presence of nature, wild and untamed, the oppos... ...ncerning sex became more open in manner as the years went by. The protest against sexual brutality in ‘Sexual Healing’ would certainly not have been acceptable even two decades before its time, let alone 200 years. Further exposure to lust and sex in the media led to poems such as ‘Adultery’ being written. This poem’s acceptance in contemporary society displays a progression of international maturity in regards to sex, but at the same time the loss of modesty. Ultimately, all poems have differing representations of the same theme, which is shaped by the society of its era. William Wordsworth once said that ‘poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.’ Lust and sex are among the most powerful feelings that human beings are capable of, and there is no doubt that poets will continue express their passion, elation or anguish on this subject.