Poems/Sonnets aimed at persuasion to have sex

[kill.cactus]

I need to find a sonnet which was written by Shakespeare, however if it is a poem/sonnet by another well known poet (as in John Donne well known), that is great too. This sonnet must be a persuasion lyric aimed at asking someone to be the narrator's lover. It does not have to be about someone who is asking his lover to have sex with him, it could be simply a lust-fueled situation.

Would anyone be able to point me a sonnet? Thanks so much! :)

[NDL]

Try Andrew Marvell's "To his coy Mistress." ("Had we but world enough and time ..."} Also Come my Celia, by Ben Jonson. But learn them well and recite them passionately, in a low and intense voice, preferaly over the shoulder a few inches from the ear, so your breath plays on the lady's neckm or from the front, holding full eye contact.
You could also try, " Thomas Campion's song, below

Shall I come, sweet Loue, to thee
When the eu'ning beames are set?
Shall I not excluded be?
Will you finde no fained lett?
Let me not, for pitty, more,
Tell the long houres at your dore.

Who can tell what theefe or foe,
In the couert of the night,
For his prey will worke my woe,
Or through wicked foule despight :
So may I dye vnredrest,
Ere my long loue be possest.

But to let such dangers passe,
Which a louers thoughts disdaine,
'Tis enough in such a place
To attend loues ioyes in vaine.
Doe not mocke me in thy bed,
While these cold nights freeze me dead.

[Isagel]

"Doe not mocke me in thy bed,
While these cold nights freeze me dead." Poor fellow.

I am not really sure if the poem below would grant any success with the ladies. It is an honest attempt, but more in the terms of - "come on, just a quickie" then any romance. Personally I prefer "To his coy Mistress".

The Flea, By John Donne

MARK but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is ;
It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.
Thou know'st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two ;
And this, alas ! is more than we would do.

O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.
Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,
And cloister'd in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee?
Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou
Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.
'Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;
Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,
Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.

[rintrah]

The sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella by Sir Philip Sidney is a lenghty but significant example of the lover attempting to woo his beloved, and follows the Petrarchan example of forbidden or impossible love.

[Redzeppelin]

Here's an unconventional one: "The Flea" by John Donne. In the poem, a flea has bitten the speaker, and then bites the woman addressed in the poem. She is preparing to kill the flea between her fingers and he stops her and creates a sophisticated (or desperate, depending on how you see it) conciet to get the girl into bed. Here it is:

THE FLEA.
by John Donne


MARK but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is ;
It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.
Thou know'st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two ;
And this, alas ! is more than we would do.

O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.
Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,
And cloister'd in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee?
Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou
Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.
'Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;
Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,
Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.

[Isagel]

I think it is intersting the way most of these poems aim at seducing by using wit to tell that sex is not such a big thing. It is not such a serious thing, not a big sin even if you are not married. In the poems it seems more like a harmless game for grownups, not something forbidden and dangerous. Was that the popular view on sex in those times, or are the poems a reaction against the common view? I don´t know enough about that time, so for me the poems seem very modern in that respect.

[rintrah]

The sonnet sequences of Petrarch (who developed the form) and his English equivalent Sidney certainly show sex to be a very big deal, and particularly with Sidney, the social boundaries governing it are impassable.

[Isagel]

Interesting, I´ll have a look. I did not mean to imply anything about Petrarch, the poems I have read are just a limited sample and they might have given me a wrong idea. Still, that only makes them more interesting to me . At second thought it seems more natural that a society has many different opinions about love and sex.

[Triskele]

to me, i would try "Howl" by allen ginsburg, it has many images proclaiming sex as a release