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Poetry Library Southbank Centre - The Poetry Library housing the Arts Council Collection at Southbank Centre

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Barbara Daniels

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To Mr. Marvell

Now we have world enough and time
and I’ve abjured my former crime,
my skin’s alive with youthful fires,
I’m open to your worst desires.
So let us sport us while we may
but grant that sun a holiday,
for what I have in mind won’t need
his beams or his excessive speed.
I’m through with coyness; you were right:
I fear eternity’s vast night.
I’ll offer you my every part,
(to poetise or tear apart),
my eyes, my breasts and bits between -
I’ll leave no mysteries unseen.

But now you seem reluctant to
embark on acts you swore you’d do,
and should you fail to make a start,
I’ll die before you reach my heart.
I’m willing, love, to give a hand
where once I would have made a stand,
yet ponder as you turn your back
on what we pliant maidens lack.
Perhaps there was a ratio
between your lust and my coy No.”

Page(s) 21

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