Outdoor bathing in poetry

[bunnyjadwiga]

hm....
Muir points out this scandalous poem by Robert Herrick (1591–1674):

Upon Julia['s] Washing Herself in the River
How fierce was I, when I did see
My Julia wash her self in thee!
So Lillies thorough Christall look:
So purest pebbles in the brook:
As in the River Julia did,
Halfe with a Lawne of water hid,
Into thy streames my self I threw,
And strugling there, I kist thee too;
And more had done (it is confest)
Had not thy waves forbad the rest.

More bathing poems:
Corinna Bathes by George Chapman(1559?–1634)

And
"Lover, Being Wounded at the Bathe, Sues Unto His Lady For Pitie"
Whetstone, George (1544?–1587)

I bathing late, in bathes of sovereigne ease,
Not in those bathes where beauties blisse doth flowe,
But even at Bathe, which many a guest doth please;
But loe mishap! those waves hath wrought my woe.
There love I sawe her seemely selfe to lave,
Whose sightly shape so sore my heart did heate,
That soone I shund those streames my selfe to save;
But scorching sighes so set mee in a sweate,
That loe! I pine to please my peevish will,
And yet I freese with frostes of chilling feare.

Comments

[helwen.livejournal.com]

I like it!! I'd love to put it with an illustration, but I have to say that searching copyright on poetry has always been a daunting task for me. But I suppose I could do it for my own amusement :)