Lusty Lyrics

“When how the smile, long wearied for, we read/Was kissed by him who loved like none before,/This one, who henceforth never leaves me, laid/A kiss on my mouth, trembling the while all o’er.” Dante Alighieri's Inferno, Translated by James Romanes Sibbald, Canto V, lines 130-140.

Their plight made Dante feel pity and guilt

For it was poetry that sealed their fates:

Lyric structures were by subtle minds built

Upon the lust of lofty reprobates

Lancelot lusted for fair Guinevere

Her heart, formerly Arthur’s alone, strayed;

Betrayal spiced their guilt and bashful fear

And in each other’s arms, madly, they stayed

Paolo and Francesca read of their lust

Which flew from the page into their young hearts

Uxoriousness made them both bite dust

And Dante lament poets’ errant arts

In Hell, Francesca told Dante their tale

From text to sex moved their unhappy trail