T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
April
By Edward Carpenter (1844–1929)(From Towards Democracy, 1883) O APRIL, month of Nymphs and Fauns and Cupids, | |
| Month of the Sungod’s kisses, Earth’s sweet passion, | |
| Of fanciful winds and showers; | |
| Apollo, glorious over hill and dale | |
| Ethereally striding; grasses springing | 5 |
| Rapt to his feet, buds bursting, flowers out-breathing | |
| Their liberated hearts in love to him. | |
| [The little black-cap garrulous on the willow | |
| Perching so prim, the crested chaffinch warbling, | |
| And primrose and celandine, anemone and daisy, | 10 |
| Starring the tender herb which lambs already nibble.] | |
| Month of all-gathering warmth, | |
| Of breathless moments, hotter and hotter growing— | |
| Smiles turned to fire, kisses to fierce earnest— | |
| Of sultry swoons, pauses, and strange suspense | 15 |
| (Clouds and dæmonic thunder through the blue vault threatingly rolling); | |
| Then the delirious up-break—the great fountains of the deep, in Sex, | |
| Loosened to pouring failing rushing waters; | |
| Shafts of wild light; and Sky and Earth in one another’s arms | |
| Melted, and all of Heaven spent in streams of love | 20 |
| Towards the Loved one. | |