Top 6 Classic Erotic Poems

1. Erotic Poems

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and David Luke (Translator). Oxford University Press. From the publisher: "Editorial censorship has long obscured the true from and content of the Elegies, which were inspired by Goethe's sexual liberation in Italy and his love for the woman he took as his unofficial wife on his return to Germany. They are here presented as Goethe boldly conceived them together with the long-suppressed narrative poem known as 'The Diary'."

2. Erotic Spirit: An Anthology of Poems of Sensuality, Love, and Longing

by Sam Hamill (Editor). Random House. From the publisher: "From the passion of sexual desire to the intense longing for spiritual union, this extraordinary collection of poems celebrates the erotic spirit in all of its forms from Egyptian love songs of the 15th century to today's finest poets. This book draws on an extraordinary range of cultural and spiritual traditions."

3. Erotic Love Poems from India

by Amaru. Random House. From the publisher: "The poems translated here offer poignant glimpses into the many faces of erotic love. This collection, known in Sanskrit as the Amarushataka ('One Hundred Poems of Amaru'), was compiled in the eighth century and remains to this day one of India's finest collections of love poetry. It has never been fully translated into English poetry before."

4. Erotic Poems

by Peter Washington (Editor). Random House. From the publisher: "These poems, selected from most of the cultures and histories of world literature, provide magnificent witness to the fact that love is as much an act of the imagination as it is of the body. From fourth-century Li Ch'ung's 'Parody of a Lover' to John Betmeman's 'Late-Flowering Lust,' they re-create, through the revelations of language, that experience of the erotic."

5. Medieval Welsh Erotic Poetry

by Dafydd Johnston (Editor). Seren. From the publisher: "This new, revised edition of Medieval Welsh Erotic Poetry contains thirty-one poems from the later medieval period. They all deal frankly with sex and sexual organs, some deliberately provocative, others self-mocking, and a few intended to shock and disgust."

6. Fragrant Flower: Classic Chinese Erotica in Art and Poetry

by Hua Ying Jin Zhen, N. S. Wang (Translator), and B. L. Wang (Translator). Prometheus Books. This collection feaures 40 line drawings and their accompanying poems, from the 40 Ming Dynasty.