17th Century Seduction Poems Are Relevant In The 21st Century

Fear of cuckoldry is widely known theme in medieval and Renaissance English literature. Fear of cuckoldry was also a widespread fear in English society during those eras. Men often treated their wives as possessions. Once men and women married, divorce was almost impossible, especially since it was almost impossible to prove that one had been cuckolded. If one were cuckolded and one’s wife had another man’s child, one might spend decades taking care of that child and passing on one’s money and belongings to that child without ever knowing that one had been deceived. Unmarried women are seen as their fathers ' property and the play 's two marriages are marked by jealousy and cruelty. Most

fate of the lovers will be, as well as the state of his own feelings

Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales are some of the most widely read and anthologized pieces of medieval poetry. These tales are generally celebrated and enjoyed because of the author’s use of wit and satire, as Chaucer often uses word play and characterization to deliver hard-hitting, yet entertaining truths about his time period. This is the case in “The Miller’s Tale,” which portrays the story of a carpenter with an adulterous wife and the shenanigans that take place during and after one of her affairs. After closely examining “Absalom’s Revenge,” the last section of this tale, it is clear to see that Chaucer uses language, puns, and other writing techniques to provide a commentary on the lewdness of some who lived during the Middle Ages.

Marie Howe created an ode for all the females that she had intimate relations with called “Practicing”. It backtracks to middle school as Howe ambiguously states the acts they performed. This poem is organized into ten separate couplet-stanzas without a rhyme scheme or a distinct meter. Her imagery does not contain specific details on the physical attributes of any of the girls or if there was one she really admired. However, the imagery goes into their sexual explorations with one another behind closed doors. By using metaphors and sentence structure Marie Howe creates imagery that is correlated with the form, and syntax that stays consistent with age.

While on the way to venerate Saint Thomas Becket’s remains, the entertainment of Chaucer’s Canterbury pilgrims falls upon the requiting of stories between the different estates. However, this requiting quickly turns malicious, the Host’s simple proposition evolving into an aggressive show of social dominance that includes the boasting of both literal and metaphorical rape. The normalization (or, borderline reverence) of aggressive manliness contributes to the creation of both rape culture and compulsory heterosexuality. Consequently, when a man does not dominate a woman—or, does not use his masculinity to humiliate another man—he is seen as weak or effeminate, subsequently placing his sexuality under scrutiny. Such is the motive behind John and Aleyn’s rape of the miller’s wife and daughter—to make Symkin seem weak, and to gain a reputation of superior masculinity. Thus,

A true libertine of the Restoration Era, John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester – better known as his literary persona Rochester – is recognized for his poetry that often breaks barriers and social conventions in obscene ways. One such poem that is particularly explicit, some might even say pornographic, is entitled “A Ramble in St. James’s Park.” Including the sex, alcohol, and debauchery that is so characteristic of Rochester, this poem creates a unique balance between depravity of content and elegance of literary form. While there is much evidence that Rochester represents sex explicitly with obscene and shocking language in “A Ramble in St. James’s Park” for the purpose of satirizing both himself and contemporary love poems, I will argue that in doing so, he also makes a broader statement regarding the tension between the public and private spheres of sexuality, specifically representing female sexuality in the public sphere and erotic female bodies as communal property; finally, the lewd language hints at an anxiety about the power of the feminine over men, thus queering gender roles by becoming the abject feminine.

telling her that if he had all the time in the world he would use it

Male seducers are represented as boys sowing their oats -- part of normal living. Seduced females are viewed as weak and treacherous --  a treachery that woman in her "frailty" is unable to avoid. This is a very bizarre message.

There is a similar theme running through both of the poems, in which both mistresses are refusing to partake in sexual intercourse with both of the poets. The way in which both poets present their argument is quite

The concept that sex can be used as a means to an end is nothing new; however, Alison presents the idea that women can use their bodies for both pleasure and power. She states, “‘A man must yield his wife her debts’ / What means of paying her can he invent / Unless he use his silly instrument?” (280). Indeed, his instrument can pay his wife in the form of pleasure, while also allowing her clout in the relationship. The Wife goes on to establish the consensual aspect of sex in a marriage, saying, “In wifehood I will use my instrument / As freely as my Maker me it sent. / If I turn difficult, God give me sorrow! My husband, he shall have it eve and morrow” (280). Not only does she give her husband sex, she wants to fulfill his sexual desires. Later in her narrative, she admits to getting paid for sex with a few of her husbands. She says, “‘It’s all for sale and let him win who can.’ / No empty-handed man can lure a bird. / His pleasures were my profit; I concurred” (287). She expertly devises a plan to get what she wants while getting paid for it as well. This is the underlying theme of

The participants do not engage in amateurish relations, but instead engage in the activity of sex with expertise. The poem’s descriptions label them as being individuals worthy of admiration.

Chaucer breaks the topic of sex into two basic parts: carnality and romanticism. Although carnal love is a controversial topic, Chaucer dives into the subject by creating characters with ferocious appetites for sex and the means to accommodate their desires. Whereas, to address romanticism, he relies heavily on

“To His Coy Mistress,” a poem written by Andrew Marvell, directly deals with the speaker trying to “seduce his coy lady” (Reiff 198) into having sex. The man sweet talks to her through passion and love. For example, in the first stanza he expresses his love for her by saying, “My vegetable love should grow / Vaster than empires, and more slow” (11-12), meaning that his love for her is getting stronger by the stanzas. Another piece of work that deals with manipulation is “Hills Like White Elephants,” written by Ernest Hemingway. The story talks about an American man that does not want his girlfriend to have a baby and tries to convince her to abort the child. The man tells her that after the operation, things will go back to the way they used

attention of this mistress so that he can scare her and rush her into making a

language, the use of poetry to seduce women may be traced back to the late