'"And Never Know the Joy": Sex and the Erotic in English Poetry' promises the reader much to enjoy and to reflect on: riddles and sex games; the grammar of relationships; the cunning psychology of bodily fantasies; sexuality as the ambiguous performance of words; the allure of music and its instruments; the erotics of death and remembrance, are just a few of the initial themes that emerge from the twenty-five articles to be found in this volume, with many an invitation to seize the day . Reproduction, pregnancy, and fear; discredited and degraded libertines; the ventriloquism of sexual objects; the ease with which men are reduced to impotence by the carnality of women; orgasm and melancholy; erotic mysticism and religious sexuality; the potency and dangers of fruit and flowers; the delights of the recumbent male body and of dancing girls; the fertile ritual use of poetic texts; striptease and revolution; silent women reclaimed as active vessels, are amongst the many engaging topics that emerge out of the ongoing and entertaining scholarly discussion of sex and eroticism in English poetry. Contents: Preface Janine ROGERS: Riddling Erotic Identity in Early English Lyrics Kevin Teo Kia CHOONG: Bodies of Knowledge: Embodying Riotous Performance in the Harley Lyrics Luisella CAON: The Pronouns of Love and Sex: 'Thou' and 'Ye' Among Lovers in 'The Canterbury Tales' Bart VELDHOEN: Reason versus Nature in Dunbar s Tretis of the Twa Mariit Wemen and the Wedo Glyn PURSGLOVE: Prick-Song Ditties: Musical Metaphor in the Bawdy Verse of the Early Modern Period Mark LLEWELLYN: Cease Thy Wanton Lust : Thomas Randolph s Elegy, the Cult of Venetia, and the Possibilities of Classical Sex Rebecca C. POTTER: The Nymph s Reply Nine Months Later Tracy WENDT LEMASTER: Lowering the Libertine: Feminism in Rochester s The Imperfect Enjoyment Kari Boyd Mcbride: Upon a Little Lady : Gender and Desire in Early Modern English Lyrics Lisa Marie LIPIPIPATVONG: Freeborn Joy : Sexual Exp