Carnal knowledge and Sonnet

[The best effect comes from reading the poems out loud.. don't be afraid to dramatise. (: happy indulging!]

Carnal Knowledge
Even in bed I pose: desire may grow
More circumstantial and less circumspect
Each night, but an acute girl would suspect
that my self is not like my body, bare.
I wonder if you know, or, knowing, care?
You know I know you know I know you know.

I am not what I seem, believe me, so
For the magnanimous pagan I pretend
Substitiute a forked creature as your friend.
When darkness lies without a roll or stir
Flaccid, you want a competent poseur.
I know you know I know you know I know.

Cackle you hen, and answer when I crow.
No need to grope: I'm still playing the same
Comical act inside the tragic game.
Yet things perhaps are simpler: could it be
A mere tear-jerker devoid of honesty?
You know I know you know I know you know.

Leave me. Witnin a minute I will stow
Your greedy mouth, but will not yet to grips.
'There is a space between breast and lips.'
Also a space between thighs and head,
So great, we might as well not be in bed.
I know you know I know you know I know.

I hardly hoped for happy thoughts, although
In a most happy sleeping time I dreamt
We did not hold each other in contempt.
Then lifting my lid's night's penny weights
I saw that lack of love contaminates.
You know I know you know I know you know.

Abandon me to stammering, and go;
If you have tears, prepare to cry elsewhere-
I know of no emotion we can share,
Your intellectual protests are a bore
And even now I pose, so now go, for
I know you know.

Thom Gunn

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Sonnet
If thou must love me, let it be for naught
Ecvept for love's sake only. Do not say,
'I love her for her smile -her look- her way
Of speaking gently, - for a trick if thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day'-
For these things in themselves, beloved, may
Be changed, or change for thee- and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning.