Happy Sunday and welcome to day 26! Today's prompt is an idea of what to write about: LUST. Not its gentrified poetrified cousin, "Desire", but straight-up raw fresh-from-the-countryside lust. And while this is the point where I'm expected to say "Lust can come in many forms, of course – lust for fame, lust for knowledge..." Nah. I mean the kind that makes you twinge.
Lustful poems have a long and fantastic tradition. John Donne's "To His Mistress Going to Bed" positively startled the teenage me. School had introduced me to a great deal of romantic and Romantic poetry, and I'd thoroughly grasped that Love was a Fitting Subject For Poetry, but it took a great deal more independent reading to discover that all those same worthy poets were also writing fantastically about lust – and not just the various coy-mistress versions on a theme of "Please have sex with me while you're still young and pretty cos soon you'll get old and die!" which I don't think is quite the pick-up line they thought. Try e.e.cumming's i like my body when it is with your, that's thoroughly more enticing, or Edna St Vincent Millay going forth at night, crying like a cat. Or Emily Dickinson, who we're prone to thinking of as a bonneted paragon, with Come slowly, Eden. And if you need more inspiration, here's a lovely selection of thirteen steamy poems.
You could write this free verse, or if you fancy a type of poem to write, I have two serving suggestions, both of them repeating forms, which is very well suited to the obsessive nature of lust. For a short version, try a triolet: just 8 lines, the first line repeated twice and the second line repeated once. You can read more about triolets and see an example here.
Alternately, if you're in the mood to stretch your poetry legs more, you could write a villanelle, which was also the serving suggestion for Day 8's prompt about scientific instruments. Here's a recap:
| Line # | Repeated line | Rhyme |
| 1 | A | a |
| 2 | xxxxx | b |
| 3 | B | a |
| 4 | xxxxx | a |
| 5 | xxxxx | b |
| 6 | A | a |
| 7 | xxxxx | a |
| 8 | xxxxx | b |
| 9 | B | a |
| 10 | xxxxx | a |
| 11 | xxxxx | b |
| 12 | A | a |
| 13 | xxxxx | a |
| 14 | xxxxx | b |
| 15 | B | a |
| 16 | xxxxx | a |
| 17 | xxxxx | b |
| 18 | B | a |
| 19 | B | a |
- Stanza length: The first five stanza are 3 lines each; the last stanza is 4 lines
- Rhyme scheme: the first four stanzas are aba; the last stanza is abaa.
- Repeating lines: The table shows where the two repeating lines go, that's A and B. They can have slight variations, changing words or tweaking punctuation, so the meaning shifts throughout the poem. Read the example further down, to see how it works.
Practical tip: When you’re writing a villanelle (or any repeating form), it helps to mark out the structure in your notebook, and each time you write a line that will repeat, jot it down in the places where it’ll repeat. You can always tweak the wording and punctuation when you get to it, but it’s much easier to write if you can see what lines you’re heading towards, instead of trying to hold it in your head.
Whatever you choose, have fun with it!
The Meddling with Poetry course explores a host of different poetry forms as well as the musicality of language, poetic imagery, and other aspects of the poetic. It's 8 weeks long, one evening a week, and absolute beginners and experienced writers are equally welcome. You can read more details and book a place here.
