Naked she lay, clasped in my longing arms, I filled with love, and she all over charms; Both equally inspired with eager fire, Melting through kindness, flaming in desire. Lord Rochester Over the ages many poets have put pen to paper in celebration of that most raw and yet most beautiful of human instincts – erotic love. This anthology includes verse by Herrick, Marlowe, Jonson, Byron, Verlaine, Whitman, Yeats, Cummings and, from our own time, John Betjeman. All aspects of erotic love are to be found in these poems – from the witty and bawdy to the sensuous and tender.