Poems About Love and Sex

Read the following selections from The Oxford Anthology of American Poetry, ed. D. Lehman, 2006.

Poems about sex and love:

Millay, “Rendezvous” (p. 390)
Duncan, “The Torso (Passage 18)” (pp. 649-51)
Wilbur, “Love Calls Us to the Things of This World” (pp. 668-9)
Levertov, “The Mutes” (pp. 687-8)
Hall, “When the Young Husband” (pp. 847-8)
Rich, “Living in Sin” (pp. 868-9)
Haas, “Misery and Splendor” (pp. 970)

How do some of these poems about sex and love project images and ideas about femininity and masculinity? Discuss two or three poems.

Sample Solution