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How praise a man? She cannot vow
His lips are red, his brow is snow,
Nor celebrate a smooth white breast
While gazing on his hairy chest;
And though a well-turned leg might please,
More often he has knobbly knees;
His hair excites no rapt attention -
If there's enough of it to mention.
She cannot praise his damask skin,
Still less the suit he's wrapped it in;
And even if he's like Apollo
To gaze upon, it does not follow
That she may specify the features
That mark him off from other creatures.
No rime can hymn her great occasion
But by a process of evasion;
And so she gives the problem over,
Describes her love, but not her lover,
Despairs of words to tell us that
Her heart sings his magnificat.
An excellent illustration of Figleaf's Bogus Two Rules of Desire. It's not that the lady doesn't think her man is the hottest thing on two legs; it's that we lack sufficient literary or social paradigms for articulating and recognising that. Or we did, in 1967; Tumblr has made some inroads into the problem since...
His lips are red, his brow is snow,
Nor celebrate a smooth white breast
While gazing on his hairy chest;
And though a well-turned leg might please,
More often he has knobbly knees;
His hair excites no rapt attention -
If there's enough of it to mention.
She cannot praise his damask skin,
Still less the suit he's wrapped it in;
And even if he's like Apollo
To gaze upon, it does not follow
That she may specify the features
That mark him off from other creatures.
No rime can hymn her great occasion
But by a process of evasion;
And so she gives the problem over,
Describes her love, but not her lover,
Despairs of words to tell us that
Her heart sings his magnificat.
An excellent illustration of Figleaf's Bogus Two Rules of Desire. It's not that the lady doesn't think her man is the hottest thing on two legs; it's that we lack sufficient literary or social paradigms for articulating and recognising that. Or we did, in 1967; Tumblr has made some inroads into the problem since...