Pansies (Lawrence)/Chastity

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CHASTITY
Chastity, beloved chastity,O beloved chastityhow infinitely dear to mechastity, beloved chastity!
That my body need not befingered by the mind,or prostituted by the dreecontact of cerebral flesh—
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O leave me clean from mental fingeringfrom the cold copulation of the will,from all the white, self-conscious lecherythe modern mind calls love!
From all the mental poetryof deliberate love-making,from all the false felicityof deliberate taking
the body of another unto mine,O God deliver me!leave me alone, let me be!
Chastity, dearer far to methan any contact that can bein this mind-mischievous age!

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