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Hand in Hand with Love: An anthology of queer classic poetry
Hand in Hand with Love is a celebration of queer voices throughout the ages, featuring an electrifying range of poems from Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Oscar Wilde, Christina Rossetti, Wilfred Owen and many more.
Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited by Dr Simon Avery, a specialist in queer history and culture at the University of Westminster.
From Sappho and the Ancient Greeks to Edna St. Vincent Millay and the modernists, this luminous anthology champions and redefines the spectrum of queer poetry – from visionary writers whose only safe space to express their intimate thoughts was on the page, to the pioneering poets who paved the way for decades to come. Together, these dynamic voices offer a vivid archive of queer identity to be celebrated, discovered and treasured.
Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited by Dr Simon Avery, a specialist in queer history and culture at the University of Westminster.
From Sappho and the Ancient Greeks to Edna St. Vincent Millay and the modernists, this luminous anthology champions and redefines the spectrum of queer poetry – from visionary writers whose only safe space to express their intimate thoughts was on the page, to the pioneering poets who paved the way for decades to come. Together, these dynamic voices offer a vivid archive of queer identity to be celebrated, discovered and treasured.
194 pages, Hardcover
Published May 23, 2023
60 people are currently reading
672 people want to read
About the author
Simon Avery
37 books22 followersBorn in 1971, Simon Avery lives and works in Birmingham.
Over the last twenty-two years he has been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies including Black Static, Crimewave, The Best British Mysteries IV, Beneath the Ground, Birmingham Noir, Terror Tales of Yorkshire and Something Remains.
He has been nominated for the Crime Writers Association Dagger award and the British Fantasy Award.
The Teardrop Method, a novella from TTA Press was shortlisted for the World Fantasy award.
Sorrowmouth, a novella from Black Shuck Books followed a mini-collection, A Box Full of Darkness, and in November 2024, Simon’s first novel PoppyHarp is released.
He can be contacted via Facebook, Twitter and his blog at: https://simonaveryblog.wordpress.com/
Over the last twenty-two years he has been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies including Black Static, Crimewave, The Best British Mysteries IV, Beneath the Ground, Birmingham Noir, Terror Tales of Yorkshire and Something Remains.
He has been nominated for the Crime Writers Association Dagger award and the British Fantasy Award.
The Teardrop Method, a novella from TTA Press was shortlisted for the World Fantasy award.
Sorrowmouth, a novella from Black Shuck Books followed a mini-collection, A Box Full of Darkness, and in November 2024, Simon’s first novel PoppyHarp is released.
He can be contacted via Facebook, Twitter and his blog at: https://simonaveryblog.wordpress.com/
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
July 5, 2024
Having this book on my nightstand and reading one poem a night and making me feel so seen as a queer woman and so so proud 🥰
August 6, 2023
As someone who does not understand poetry, this was really lovely. Some of these went over my head, others made me experience emotions, but mostly it was fantastic to see the same themes return over and over throughout history. I would have liked to see more non-western poetry in here, though, but overall it was really lovely.
June 3, 2025
Cute little collection of queer poetry.
On the train to Shepparton, a train conductor told me that a lot of people read poetry, but that you don’t read poetry, you feel it. Something I’ll try to remember.
My favourite poem in this collection was Sonnet XI by Richard Barnfield written in 1595:
Sighing, and sadly sitting by my love,
He asked the cause of my heart's sorrowing,
Conjuring me by heaven's eternal King
To tell the cause which me so much did move.
Compelled (quoth I), to thee will I confess,
Love is the cause, and only love it is
That doth deprive me of my heavenly bliss.
Love is the pain that doth my heart oppress.
And what is she (quoth he) whom thou dost love?
Look in this glass (quoth I), there shalt thou see
The perfect form of my felicity.
When, thinking that it would strange magic prove,
He opened it, and taking off the cover,
He straight perceived himself to be my lover.
On the train to Shepparton, a train conductor told me that a lot of people read poetry, but that you don’t read poetry, you feel it. Something I’ll try to remember.
My favourite poem in this collection was Sonnet XI by Richard Barnfield written in 1595:
Sighing, and sadly sitting by my love,
He asked the cause of my heart's sorrowing,
Conjuring me by heaven's eternal King
To tell the cause which me so much did move.
Compelled (quoth I), to thee will I confess,
Love is the cause, and only love it is
That doth deprive me of my heavenly bliss.
Love is the pain that doth my heart oppress.
And what is she (quoth he) whom thou dost love?
Look in this glass (quoth I), there shalt thou see
The perfect form of my felicity.
When, thinking that it would strange magic prove,
He opened it, and taking off the cover,
He straight perceived himself to be my lover.
May 6, 2024
I loved it! It was a heartwarming read and the selection was really impressive!
But I just can’t stop thinking about this one poet who exchanged looks with a red coat and wrote full on poem about it lol
But I just can’t stop thinking about this one poet who exchanged looks with a red coat and wrote full on poem about it lol
February 20, 2025
Some poems were better than others, I am completely enamoured by Mathilde Blind's The Mystic's Vision. I found it so interesting that regardless of how many decades ago, near or far, that some things never change. Someone, somewhere is always celebrating, cherishing and/or yearning for queer love throughout the centuries it seems.
May 28, 2025
The Dream
All trembling in my Arms Aminta lay,
Defending of the Bliss I strove to take;
Raising my Rapture by her kind delay,
Her force so charming was and weak.
The soft resistance did betray the Grant,
While I pressed on the Heaven of my desires;
Her rising Breasts with nimbler Motions Pant;
Her dying Eyes assume new Fires.
Now to the height of languishment she grows,
And still her looks new Charms put on;
Now the last Mystery of Love she knows,
We Sigh, and Kiss: I wak'd, and all was done.
‘Twas but a Dream, yet by my Heart I knew,
Which still was Panting, part of it was true:
Oh how I strove the rest to have believ'd;
Asham'd and Angry to be undeceived!
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)
All trembling in my Arms Aminta lay,
Defending of the Bliss I strove to take;
Raising my Rapture by her kind delay,
Her force so charming was and weak.
The soft resistance did betray the Grant,
While I pressed on the Heaven of my desires;
Her rising Breasts with nimbler Motions Pant;
Her dying Eyes assume new Fires.
Now to the height of languishment she grows,
And still her looks new Charms put on;
Now the last Mystery of Love she knows,
We Sigh, and Kiss: I wak'd, and all was done.
‘Twas but a Dream, yet by my Heart I knew,
Which still was Panting, part of it was true:
Oh how I strove the rest to have believ'd;
Asham'd and Angry to be undeceived!
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)
March 27, 2024
Lots of classics. My favorite was “Stonewall”.
March 7, 2025
"But surely it is something to have been / The best beloved for a little while, / To have walked hand in hand with Love, and seen / His purple wings flit once across thy smile"
– Oscar Wilde
Hand in Hand with Love is an anthology of queer poetry from Sappho to Oscar Wilde to Audre Lorde. The poems range from heartbreaking tragedies to sweet paeans to love, from depictions of unrequited lust to fantastical reality-bending adventures on the Goblin Market. Through these poems, the editor, Simon Avery, introduces his reader to a wide range of authors featuring household names like Lord Alfred Tennyson, Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, and lesser known poets (obviously well known for experts in queer poetry but not novices like me) such as Lesbia Harford, Claude McKay and Amy Lowell.
I really loved this poetry collection. I am not a big reader of poetry – I like to occasionally dabble in the genre but I don't actively seek out new poets or try and get to know the historical canon of poetry – and collections including many authors can be a hit or miss for me, but this one was, 100%, a hit. There was but a handful of poems I didn't like or connect to – on the flip side, there were so many that I absolutely loved. I think the standout poem of the collection, for me, was the second to last poem, written by Roz Kaveney, called "Stonewall – A Poem". The way Kaveney described the "Stonewall girls" who changed the world and whose names should be known, the people who changed the world who were "too young, too queer, too poor, too brown" and said "The people with nothing to lose / I know their names / Because they are my kind" got me in the feels. The collection covers hundreds of years, and each time period had some exemplary stuff and quotes that felt like a gut punch in the best possible way – from Lord Alfred Douglas's iconic "a love that dare not speak its name" to Lord Byron's melancholic "Thus much and more; and yet thou lov'st me not / And never wilt! Love dwells not in our will. / Nor can I blame thee, though it be my lot / To strongly, wrongly, vainly love thee still" and Audre Lorde's "So it is better to speak / remembering / we were never meant to survive".
Hand in Hand with Love covers a wide array of topics, not focusing just on queer love, lust or loss, but also on themes of self-discovery, religious fervour, nature, war and a desire to be seen and remembered. Some poems were not about love or sex at all, but about the world in general from a queer point of view. One of my favorite lines in the whole book was Wilde describing a scenery in his poem: "Not marking how the spotted hawk in flight / Passed on wide pinion through the lofty air / To where the steep untrodden mountain height / Caught the last tresses of the Sun God's hair". Absolutely gorgeous! Regarding poems about love, there were incredibly tender poems like Amy Lowell's "Decade" which was a short lil poem about a decade-long, still loving relationship and heartbreakers like Harold Munro's "Lament in 1915", a poem about a brutal loss that echoes the pain so many dealt with during and after World War I, which began a year before the poem's lament takes place. There's poems about swearing to give your loved one all you can, to treat them better than anyone else could, like Christopher Marlowe's poem that features the repeated, gorgeous phrase: "Come live with me and be my love". I could keep listing these incredible poems and what they meant to me, but I will leave you with these few examples: honestly, whatever kind of love poem you are in the mood for, you can find one in this collection.
One of my favorite aspects of this collection was how, throughout Simon Avery's curated list of artists, you get a sense of the development of queer poetry from Sappho to the 1990s. Obviously, this is a very small collection and solely focused on western and European literature, so it does not cover all (no poetry collection could) but I'd say this is a great place to start if you want a basic idea of the classics of queer poetry. I also just loved how these poems were, across space and time, in conversation with one another. The ancient Greek Theocritus writes in his poem: "May our love be strong / To all hereafter times the theme of song! / 'Two men each other loved to that degree / That either friend did in the other see / A dearer than himself. They lived of old / Both golden natures in an age of gold". The desire of queer people to be seen and known as they are, to have their feelings respected and remembered, has been universal throughout history. Travis Alabanza's poem ends the collection with harsh, rebellious words: "You tell me of pride in rainbows / In flags and flat stomachs, muscles and chests / Pride in our celebration / In unity and glee / And I spit out my pride in rebellion / The Pride in saying: / I am a freak, and you cannot fuck with me". We have gone from queer love described as "a love that dare not speak its name" to the embracing of "freakiness" and a demand for attention. The collection begins with Sappho, probably the most famous sapphic poet of all time (I mean, the word "sapphic" was derived from her name) and later, Lesbia Harford writes: "Would that I were Sappho / Greece, my land, not this! / There the noblest women / When they loved, would kiss". These kinds of connections and the presence of history in later queer poetry got to me.
I would highly recommend this collection to anyone who is not yet all that familiar with classic queer poets and poetry, or anyone who just wants a beautiful collection of poetry, brimming with queer desire, joy, tragedy and love, to read. I'd say my overall enjoyment of the collection was around 4,5/5 (as I said, I am not a big poetry reader and it is very rare that a poetry book can become an all-time fave for me) but because I appreciated the way Simon Avery curated and crafted this collection and what he wanted to say with it, I decided to bump the rating up to a full 5/5 stars.
– Oscar Wilde
Hand in Hand with Love is an anthology of queer poetry from Sappho to Oscar Wilde to Audre Lorde. The poems range from heartbreaking tragedies to sweet paeans to love, from depictions of unrequited lust to fantastical reality-bending adventures on the Goblin Market. Through these poems, the editor, Simon Avery, introduces his reader to a wide range of authors featuring household names like Lord Alfred Tennyson, Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, and lesser known poets (obviously well known for experts in queer poetry but not novices like me) such as Lesbia Harford, Claude McKay and Amy Lowell.
I really loved this poetry collection. I am not a big reader of poetry – I like to occasionally dabble in the genre but I don't actively seek out new poets or try and get to know the historical canon of poetry – and collections including many authors can be a hit or miss for me, but this one was, 100%, a hit. There was but a handful of poems I didn't like or connect to – on the flip side, there were so many that I absolutely loved. I think the standout poem of the collection, for me, was the second to last poem, written by Roz Kaveney, called "Stonewall – A Poem". The way Kaveney described the "Stonewall girls" who changed the world and whose names should be known, the people who changed the world who were "too young, too queer, too poor, too brown" and said "The people with nothing to lose / I know their names / Because they are my kind" got me in the feels. The collection covers hundreds of years, and each time period had some exemplary stuff and quotes that felt like a gut punch in the best possible way – from Lord Alfred Douglas's iconic "a love that dare not speak its name" to Lord Byron's melancholic "Thus much and more; and yet thou lov'st me not / And never wilt! Love dwells not in our will. / Nor can I blame thee, though it be my lot / To strongly, wrongly, vainly love thee still" and Audre Lorde's "So it is better to speak / remembering / we were never meant to survive".
Hand in Hand with Love covers a wide array of topics, not focusing just on queer love, lust or loss, but also on themes of self-discovery, religious fervour, nature, war and a desire to be seen and remembered. Some poems were not about love or sex at all, but about the world in general from a queer point of view. One of my favorite lines in the whole book was Wilde describing a scenery in his poem: "Not marking how the spotted hawk in flight / Passed on wide pinion through the lofty air / To where the steep untrodden mountain height / Caught the last tresses of the Sun God's hair". Absolutely gorgeous! Regarding poems about love, there were incredibly tender poems like Amy Lowell's "Decade" which was a short lil poem about a decade-long, still loving relationship and heartbreakers like Harold Munro's "Lament in 1915", a poem about a brutal loss that echoes the pain so many dealt with during and after World War I, which began a year before the poem's lament takes place. There's poems about swearing to give your loved one all you can, to treat them better than anyone else could, like Christopher Marlowe's poem that features the repeated, gorgeous phrase: "Come live with me and be my love". I could keep listing these incredible poems and what they meant to me, but I will leave you with these few examples: honestly, whatever kind of love poem you are in the mood for, you can find one in this collection.
One of my favorite aspects of this collection was how, throughout Simon Avery's curated list of artists, you get a sense of the development of queer poetry from Sappho to the 1990s. Obviously, this is a very small collection and solely focused on western and European literature, so it does not cover all (no poetry collection could) but I'd say this is a great place to start if you want a basic idea of the classics of queer poetry. I also just loved how these poems were, across space and time, in conversation with one another. The ancient Greek Theocritus writes in his poem: "May our love be strong / To all hereafter times the theme of song! / 'Two men each other loved to that degree / That either friend did in the other see / A dearer than himself. They lived of old / Both golden natures in an age of gold". The desire of queer people to be seen and known as they are, to have their feelings respected and remembered, has been universal throughout history. Travis Alabanza's poem ends the collection with harsh, rebellious words: "You tell me of pride in rainbows / In flags and flat stomachs, muscles and chests / Pride in our celebration / In unity and glee / And I spit out my pride in rebellion / The Pride in saying: / I am a freak, and you cannot fuck with me". We have gone from queer love described as "a love that dare not speak its name" to the embracing of "freakiness" and a demand for attention. The collection begins with Sappho, probably the most famous sapphic poet of all time (I mean, the word "sapphic" was derived from her name) and later, Lesbia Harford writes: "Would that I were Sappho / Greece, my land, not this! / There the noblest women / When they loved, would kiss". These kinds of connections and the presence of history in later queer poetry got to me.
I would highly recommend this collection to anyone who is not yet all that familiar with classic queer poets and poetry, or anyone who just wants a beautiful collection of poetry, brimming with queer desire, joy, tragedy and love, to read. I'd say my overall enjoyment of the collection was around 4,5/5 (as I said, I am not a big poetry reader and it is very rare that a poetry book can become an all-time fave for me) but because I appreciated the way Simon Avery curated and crafted this collection and what he wanted to say with it, I decided to bump the rating up to a full 5/5 stars.
October 20, 2023
I think this might be the first time I have read a collection of poetry and taken so many screenshots of the different poems! And that’s actually great because there were so many in here that I actually really enjoyed and was moved by.
It’s also nice to see the names of poets that you might know, but to see different poems than the ones that are more well known. Like with the Wilfred Owen ones, whilst he is undoubtedly a war poet, it was nice to see his less well known ones that have a slightly different feel to them. At least, they weren’t as well known to me.
And I loved the one at the end called “Pride”! What a gut punch that one was!
It’s also nice to see the names of poets that you might know, but to see different poems than the ones that are more well known. Like with the Wilfred Owen ones, whilst he is undoubtedly a war poet, it was nice to see his less well known ones that have a slightly different feel to them. At least, they weren’t as well known to me.
And I loved the one at the end called “Pride”! What a gut punch that one was!
December 26, 2024
Sommige heerlijk, andere oké :))
Zalige editie wel!
Zalige editie wel!
December 28, 2024
every couple of pages i’d find a new quote i want to get tattooed lol
February 18, 2025
Read & annotated for my valentine x
(might be my most gay action yet)
(might be my most gay action yet)
July 6, 2023
'We knew great love ... We have not lived in vain.'
('The Dead Soldier', Sydney Oswald)
'My Love and I took hands and swore, / Against the world, to be / Poets and lovers evermore, / To laugh and dream on Lethe's shore, / To sing to Charon in his boat, / Heartening the timid souls afloat.'
('It was deep April', Katherine Bradley & Edith Cooper)
'[Love] is the star to every wandering bark.'
(Sonnet 116, Shakespeare)
//
pride read! cool collection, found some gems I may not otherwise have stumbled upon (like A. E. Housman's 'The laws of God, the laws of man').
('The Dead Soldier', Sydney Oswald)
'My Love and I took hands and swore, / Against the world, to be / Poets and lovers evermore, / To laugh and dream on Lethe's shore, / To sing to Charon in his boat, / Heartening the timid souls afloat.'
('It was deep April', Katherine Bradley & Edith Cooper)
'[Love] is the star to every wandering bark.'
(Sonnet 116, Shakespeare)
//
pride read! cool collection, found some gems I may not otherwise have stumbled upon (like A. E. Housman's 'The laws of God, the laws of man').
June 19, 2023
What a spectacular collection of poetry this is! A marvelous read. Simon Avery collected from a wide array of timelines, gender, and race. Organized essentially chronologically, these poems take you on a journey through time that gives such incredible insight on the queer experience.
July 11, 2023
The collection of poems is amazing and I wish I found it when I was finding myself. Cause the feeling of being the only one in the world to feel like this; well this book erases that and shows how many people have loved.
March 30, 2024
I don’t usually think of myself as a poetry person, but I loved this entire collection. Many pieces brought me close to tears. And it also led me down many a rabbit hole learning about historic figures and poets in queer history
September 22, 2025
Come slowly, Eden
Lips unused to thee,
Bashful, sip thy jasmines,
As the fainting bee,
Reaching late his flower,
Round her chamber hums,
Count his nectars—enters,
And is lost in balms
Emily Dickenson (1830-1886)
Sighing, and sitting sadly by my love,
He askt the cause of my heart’s sorrowing,
Conjuring me by heavens eternal King,
To tell the cause which me so much did move.
Compell’d: (quoth I) to thee I will confesse,
Love is the cause; and only love it is
That doth deprive me of my heavenly blisse,
Love is the paine that doth my heart oppresse.
And what is she (quoth he) who thou dos’t love?
Looke in this glasse (quoth I) there shalt thou see
The perfect form of my felicitie.
When, thinking that it would be strange Magic prove,
He open’d it: and taking off the cover
He straight perciev’d himselfe to be my Lover.
Richard Barnfield (1574-1620)
All trembling in my Arms Aminta lay,
Defending of the bliss I strove to take;
Raising my rapture by her kind delay,
Her force so charming was and weak.
The soft resistance did betray the Grant,
While I pressed on the Heaven of my desires;
Her riding Breasts with nimbler Motions Pant;
Her dying Eyes assume new Fires.
Now to the height of languishment she grows,
And still her looks new Charms put on;
Now the last Mystery of Love she knows,
We Sigh, and Kiss: I wak’d, and all was done.
‘‘Twas but a dream, yet by my heart I knew,
Which dril was Panting, part of it true:
Oh how I strove the rest to be believ’d,
Asham’d and Angry to be undeceiv’d!
Aphra Behn (1649-1689)
To Honora Sneyd
Honora, should that cruel time arrive
When ‘gainst my truth thou should’st my errors poise,
Scorning remembrance of our vanished joys;
When for the love-warm looks in which I live,
But cold respect shall greet me, that shall give
No tender glance, no kind regretful sighs;
When thou shalt pass me with averted eyes,
Feigning shou see’st me not, to sting, and grieve,
And sicken my sad heart, I could not bear
Such dire eclipse of thy soul-cheering rays;
I could not learn my struggling heart to tear
From thy loved form, that through memory strays;
Nor in the pale horizon of Despair
Endure the wintry and darkened days.
Anna Seward (1742-1809)
Lips unused to thee,
Bashful, sip thy jasmines,
As the fainting bee,
Reaching late his flower,
Round her chamber hums,
Count his nectars—enters,
And is lost in balms
Emily Dickenson (1830-1886)
Sighing, and sitting sadly by my love,
He askt the cause of my heart’s sorrowing,
Conjuring me by heavens eternal King,
To tell the cause which me so much did move.
Compell’d: (quoth I) to thee I will confesse,
Love is the cause; and only love it is
That doth deprive me of my heavenly blisse,
Love is the paine that doth my heart oppresse.
And what is she (quoth he) who thou dos’t love?
Looke in this glasse (quoth I) there shalt thou see
The perfect form of my felicitie.
When, thinking that it would be strange Magic prove,
He open’d it: and taking off the cover
He straight perciev’d himselfe to be my Lover.
Richard Barnfield (1574-1620)
All trembling in my Arms Aminta lay,
Defending of the bliss I strove to take;
Raising my rapture by her kind delay,
Her force so charming was and weak.
The soft resistance did betray the Grant,
While I pressed on the Heaven of my desires;
Her riding Breasts with nimbler Motions Pant;
Her dying Eyes assume new Fires.
Now to the height of languishment she grows,
And still her looks new Charms put on;
Now the last Mystery of Love she knows,
We Sigh, and Kiss: I wak’d, and all was done.
‘‘Twas but a dream, yet by my heart I knew,
Which dril was Panting, part of it true:
Oh how I strove the rest to be believ’d,
Asham’d and Angry to be undeceiv’d!
Aphra Behn (1649-1689)
To Honora Sneyd
Honora, should that cruel time arrive
When ‘gainst my truth thou should’st my errors poise,
Scorning remembrance of our vanished joys;
When for the love-warm looks in which I live,
But cold respect shall greet me, that shall give
No tender glance, no kind regretful sighs;
When thou shalt pass me with averted eyes,
Feigning shou see’st me not, to sting, and grieve,
And sicken my sad heart, I could not bear
Such dire eclipse of thy soul-cheering rays;
I could not learn my struggling heart to tear
From thy loved form, that through memory strays;
Nor in the pale horizon of Despair
Endure the wintry and darkened days.
Anna Seward (1742-1809)
January 11, 2024
Hearken to my earnest
Prayer, O Aphrodite!
May the night be doubled
Now for our delight.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie me or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprision me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
I have perceiv'd that to be with those I like is enough,
To stop in company with the rest at evening is enough,
To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough,
To pass among them or touch any one, or rest my arm ever so lightly round his or her neck for a moment, what is it then?
I do not ask any more delight, I swim in it as a sea.
(!!!!!!!)
Man shall love man, with heart as pure
And fervent as the young-eyed throng
Who chant their heavenly psalms before
God's face with undiscordant song.
New arts shall bloom of loftier mould
And mightier music fill the skies,
And every life shall be a song,
When all the earth is paradise.
You look across the fruit and flower,
My glance your glance find.-
It is our secret, only ours,
Since all the world is blind.
My Love and I took hands and swore,
Against the world, to be
Poets and lovers evermore,
To laugh and dream on Lethe's shore,
To sing to Charon in his boat,
Heartening the timid souls afloat.
I am the love that dare not speak its name.
The memory lives of what thou wast to me.
We knew great love... We have not lived in vain.
Prayer, O Aphrodite!
May the night be doubled
Now for our delight.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie me or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprision me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
I have perceiv'd that to be with those I like is enough,
To stop in company with the rest at evening is enough,
To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough,
To pass among them or touch any one, or rest my arm ever so lightly round his or her neck for a moment, what is it then?
I do not ask any more delight, I swim in it as a sea.
(!!!!!!!)
Man shall love man, with heart as pure
And fervent as the young-eyed throng
Who chant their heavenly psalms before
God's face with undiscordant song.
New arts shall bloom of loftier mould
And mightier music fill the skies,
And every life shall be a song,
When all the earth is paradise.
You look across the fruit and flower,
My glance your glance find.-
It is our secret, only ours,
Since all the world is blind.
My Love and I took hands and swore,
Against the world, to be
Poets and lovers evermore,
To laugh and dream on Lethe's shore,
To sing to Charon in his boat,
Heartening the timid souls afloat.
I am the love that dare not speak its name.
The memory lives of what thou wast to me.
We knew great love... We have not lived in vain.
June 3, 2024
beautiful poem collection about queer love :’)
i could pick out many poems or at least lines that reflected something of mine. or just beautifully written poems that just felt too intense to ignore.
there were many poems that I didn’t feel connected to as well though. maybe it was the language barrier or the way things were written and i couldn’t understand them or feel them. but it was a very beautiful connection!
maybe if i am more dedicated to the book and have more experience in the way the majority of the poems were written,i will appreciate them more!
ps:roz kaveney’s poems gave me goosebumps. They perfectly and painfully captured queer love,the not so happy and colourful aspects of it.bravo👏👏
i could pick out many poems or at least lines that reflected something of mine. or just beautifully written poems that just felt too intense to ignore.
there were many poems that I didn’t feel connected to as well though. maybe it was the language barrier or the way things were written and i couldn’t understand them or feel them. but it was a very beautiful connection!
maybe if i am more dedicated to the book and have more experience in the way the majority of the poems were written,i will appreciate them more!
ps:roz kaveney’s poems gave me goosebumps. They perfectly and painfully captured queer love,the not so happy and colourful aspects of it.bravo👏👏
March 3, 2024
No rack can torture me,
My soul's at liberty
Behind this mortal bone
There knits a bolder one
— Emancipation, Emily Dickinson
Overall a very lovely insight of queer history that introduced me to quite a few poets who i'd not heard of before. I do wish there'd been more than two modern poems in there.
September 14, 2025
I thought this poetry book was a great insight to the love in our world. I find it amazing how the world has evolved today for LGBTQ+ as someone who came out later in life poetry was always my secret pleasure. I think through poetry you can portray something beautiful and this book did just that. I would highly recommend this book.
December 3, 2023
Good in parts. I was pleased to discover Wordsworth writing about the Ladies of Llangollen. But the real discovery was Richard Barnfield - a contemporary of Shakespeare. There are a couple of lovely things from him.
January 27, 2024
Favorites:
"Les Silhouettes" and "Quia Multum Amavi" by Oscar Wilde
"Two Loves" by Lord Alfred Douglas
"The White Women" by Mary Coleridge
"St. Sebastian" by Olive Cunstance
"Lament in 1915" by Harold Munro
"Episode of Hands" by Hart Crane
"Tavern" by Edna St. Vincent Millay
"Les Silhouettes" and "Quia Multum Amavi" by Oscar Wilde
"Two Loves" by Lord Alfred Douglas
"The White Women" by Mary Coleridge
"St. Sebastian" by Olive Cunstance
"Lament in 1915" by Harold Munro
"Episode of Hands" by Hart Crane
"Tavern" by Edna St. Vincent Millay
February 22, 2025
’how like her! but ’tis she herself,
comes up the crowded street,
how little did i think, the morn,
my only love to meet!
whose else that motion and that mien?
whose else that airy tread?
for one strange moment i forgot
my only love was dead.’
- amy levy
comes up the crowded street,
how little did i think, the morn,
my only love to meet!
whose else that motion and that mien?
whose else that airy tread?
for one strange moment i forgot
my only love was dead.’
- amy levy
September 21, 2023
3.5
There were poems I’ve liked better than others — some that really touched me, and others that I didn’t grasp. Still, this is an important collection that shows gay people have always been here.
There were poems I’ve liked better than others — some that really touched me, and others that I didn’t grasp. Still, this is an important collection that shows gay people have always been here.
November 16, 2023
A beautiful selection of poems and a beautiful book.
March 11, 2024
The most perfect little collection of queer classic poems. I took pictures of so many, and will be buying it as a gift for a long time for many people x
May 28, 2024
Wunderschön herzensbrechend
June 23, 2024
Mira que non poñer a Mary Oliver...de verdad...
July 6, 2024
love reading this whenever I want to feel good abt being queer
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