What’s the difference between Eros and the Erotic? Are they not kindred? Or are they one and the same? It’s love that interests me most. As a poet and as a person. Therefore, I will provide you with a poem that I find very full of Eros and very Erotic in the way I like to think of the Erotic. It is Emily Dickinson’s poem # 520:
I started Early -- Took my Dog --
And visited the Sea --
The Mermaids in the Basement
Came out to look at me --
And Frigates -- in the Upper Floor
Extended Hempen Hands --
Presuming Me to be a Mouse --
Aground -- upon the Sands --
But no Man moved Me -- till the Tide
Went past my simple Shoe --
And past my Apron -- and my Belt --
And past my Bodice -- too --
And made as He would eat me up --
As wholly as a Dew
Upon a Dandelion's Sleeve --
And then -- I started -- too --
And He -- He followed -- close behind --
I felt his Silver Heel
Upon my Ankle -- Then my Shoes
Would overflow with Pearl --
Until We met the Solid Town --
No One He seemed to know --
And bowing -- with a Mighty look --
At me -- The Sea withdrew --
What I like very much about this poem is that there is a particular individual it addresses. And that its power is arrived at through metaphor. And this may explain my qualms with poems that deal very explicitly with genitalia. It would seem that such poems would very much like to shock us. So that when we readers accidentally open a door (or page) upon a tawdry coupling (or tripling), we’ll find our moral legs knocked right out from beneath us. Does this mean we ought to find everything we’ve considered decent (if love is, in fact, decent) now a tad wearisome? Shall we join the animated party? If we do, will it, at last, make us more exciting and interesting people?
I think not. As a reader, I’d prefer not to join in. I don’t take much interest in poems centrally concerned with sex, or poems that merely contain sex, unless I’m made to become invested in the emotional stakes of the piece. I’m not interested in being titillated. I don’t want merely to observe; I wish to take part, in my heart.
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