| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | | The Ocean of Sex | | By Edward Carpenter (1844–1929) |
| | (From Towards Democracy, 1883)
TO hold in continence the great sea, the great ocean of Sex, within one, | |
| With flux and reflux pressing on the bounds of the body, the beloved genitals, | |
| Vibrating, swaying emotional to the star-glint of the eyes of all human beings, | |
| Reflecting Heaven and all Creatures, | |
| How wonderful! | 5 |
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| Scarcely a figure, male or female, approaches, but a tremor travels across it. | |
| As when on the cliff which bounds the edge of a pond someone moves, then in the bowels of the water also there is a mirrored movement, | |
| So on the edge of this Ocean. | |
| The glory of the human form, even faintly outlined under the trees or by the shore, convulses it with far reminiscences; | |
| (Yet strong and solid the sea-banks, not lightly to be overpassed;) | 10 |
| Till may-be to the touch, to the approach, to the incantation of the eyes of one, | |
| It burst forth, uncontrollable. | |
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| O wonderful Ocean of Sex, | |
| Ocean of millions and millions of tiny seed-like human forms contained (if they be truly contained) within each person, | |
| Mirror of the very universe, | 15 |
| Sacred temple and innermost shrine of each body, | |
| Ocean-river flowing ever on through the great trunk and branches of Humanity, | |
| From which after all the individual only springs like a leaf-bud! | |
| Ocean which we so wonderfully contain (if indeed we do contain thee), and yet who containest us! | |
| Sometimes when I feel and know thee within, and identify myself with thee, | 20 |
| Do I understand that I also am of the dateless brood of Heaven and Eternity. | | | | |
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