KITTY'S DREAM
by: Henry Baker (1698-1774)
- N her
couch, one summer's day;
- Beauteous, youthful Kitty lay:
- Venus saw her from above,
- (Smiling Venus, queen of love:)
- Amaz'd at each celestial grace,
- Her polish'd limbs, her blooming face;
- Come here, my son, she said, and see
- One you might have took for me.
- Roguish Cupid, laughing, cries,
- O give me leave to quit the skies,
- And make that heav'nly maiden prove
- The various mysteries of love:
- The close embrace, the juicy kiss,
- The raging, dying, melting bliss.
- Venus consented; go, my boy,
- Make her know the heights of joy.
- Away the archer and his train
- Sport along th' ethereal plain.
- Now, around the sleeping fair,
- A thousand Cupids fill the air;
- In her bosom some inspire
- Tender wishes, warm desire;
- Some in balmy kisses sip
- Nectar from her glowing lip;
- Her each heaving snowy breast,
- Some with wanton ardor press;
- Twining round her slender waist,
- Some with eager joy embrac'd;
- While at random others rove
- Through the fragrant groves of love.
- While thus the god his revel keeps,
- Kitty, happy virgin! sleeps:
- A pleasing dream her soul employs,
- Rich with imaginary joys.
- She thinks Sir Charles upon his knees,
- Beseeching her to give him ease;
- That she disdainful looks a while;
- At length with a complying smile
- His fears dispelling, lets him see
- She burns with love as well as he:
- That folded in his eager arms,
- He boldly rifles all her charms,
- While she returns the warm embrace,
- Breast to breast, and face to face!
- Sighing, she wakes: ah, love! she cries,
- How vast must be thy real joys!
- When thus divinely great they seem,
- Tho' but imagin'd in a dream!
- Scarcely this reflection o'er,
- A footman thunders at the door:
- Kitty, disorder'd, leaves her couch,
- And Betty tells the knight's approach.
- He enters with becoming grace,
- Blushes overspread her face;
- In a soft persuasive strain
- He begs her to relieve his pain:
- Nothing she says; but from her eyes
- He learns that nothing she denies.
- Encourag'd thence, her lips, her breast
- He tries, and wanders o'er the rest;
- The glowing maid, no longer coy,
- Gives an unbounded loose to joy;
- Around him folds her snowy arms,
- At once bestowing all her charms:
- And now, this happy couple prove
- All the substantial sweets of love,
- While thousand Cupids, laughing by,
- Assist their blissful ecstasy.
- Loosen'd from his fond embrace,
- My dream, she cries, is come to pass!--
- And did my charmer dream of this?
- (Sir Charles replies, and takes a kiss)
- Henceforth, whene'er you dream, my dear,
- Let me be your interpreter.
"Kitty's Dream" is reprinted
from Poetica Erotica. Ed. T.R. Smith. New York: Crown
Publishers, 1921. |
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