The Speaker

The speaker of "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed" is presumably a woman who reflects on her past lovers throughout the poem. She is frank about the fact that she cannot remember the specifics of these "lads" who have spent the night in her bed, but that she misses their presence nonetheless (7). While the poem is often read as a meditation on lost love, the speaker's open treatment of female sexuality, along with her confession that she has forgotten the particularities of her lovers, suggest that the speaker is more likely mourning something in herself that she has lost. At the end of the poem, the speaker declares that "summer" once sang within her, but has now disappeared, suggesting that the thing she misses most about these lovers is the energy and youth they inspired in her.

Lovers

The lovers of the poem are anonymous and plentiful...