Summary

The speaker tells his mistress that he doesn't want to go to sleep. Instead, he wants to set about the "labour" of sexual intercourse (2). He compares himself to a warrior waiting for a fight as she removes her girdle (an undergarment that encircled a woman's hips). He asks her to remove her corset, speaking at length about the beauty and glory of the body that is underneath these intimate items of clothing. He describes her removal of her grown, and then her hair covering, marveling at the hair that is exposed. She takes off her stockings and shoes and then joins him in bed. He compares her first to an angel and then to a ghost. Then he speaks of her body as a newly discovered country that he wants to explore. She removes her robe, now fully naked, and he marvels at the...