Sex, Sin, Sonnets: The Poetry of Love and Desire

How do poems talk about love and sex? How might poetry offer a unique vehicle for transgressive, thwarted, or unattainable desires? By considering themes like the body, shame, excess, lust, pleasure/pain, and ecstasy, we examine how poetry from the Renaissance through the present has explored the most fundamental of human relationships. Authors include Shakespeare, Donne, Hopkins, Yeats, and Plath.