The Imperfect Enjoyment
The Imperfect Enjoyment is a poem about a sexual experience clearly enjoyed by the speaker. It mirrors the sex act in of itself because it starts off slowly and builds to a crescendo and a climax.
The lovers begin their encounter by gently exploring each other's naked bodies. They enjoy long, passionate kisses which become more and more urgent and frenzied as they are overtaken by desire for each other. She begins to pleasure him with her hand until she brings him to orgasm. He feels elated after he ejaculates but becomes bitter and morose shortly afterwards as he is oddly angry that the sex has ended so soon. He feels like he has been cheated out of something more.
The speaker wants to climax again but finds that he is unable to get an erection despite his lady's urging. He finds himself limp and flaccid and begins to feel like a failure as a man. He also begins to resent his companion because he feels that he has been used for her pleasure and he begins to refer to her as the town whore rather than in the overly poetic terms of the first line of the poem. He does concede that he feels that he has let her down by failing to be the voracious sexual partner she had imagined.
To His Mistress
In this poem, the speaker tries to explain to his mistress that she is the reason for his being the light in his life, and without her everything seems dark and pointless. He feels that she has turned away from him, and he does not understand why. He feels upset that she does not realize just how much she means to him, and how much he needs her. Without her his life is dark and he cannot see a way back to happiness.
He is also deliberating; should he remain faithful to the hope of their relationship rekindling or should he stray from the path and find another woman to be with. He admits that when he is with her he does not think about other women but perhaps this might change if there is no hope of their reunion.
At the end of the poem he manages to talk himself back into staying faithful to his mistress and tells her that he never wants to be more than an arm's reach away from her.
The Mock Song
Although this presents itself as a romantic poem, The Mock Song is really rather vicious in its vitriol. It is apparent that Rochester does not take rejection well. He feels that he is as good a lover as any other man and so cannot understand why Phyllis rejects him in favor of forty other men with whom she would rather have sex. The speaker mulls over the facts; he is handsome, in rather good shape, and desirable, so why is she rejecting him?
He also puts her sexual exploits with other men down to the fact that she has admitted that she is a whore and cannot help herself. The speaker then gets nastier; he complains that he has been covered with injuries caused by love darts, implying that he is more desired than she is and that he has lovers waiting in the wings even if she is no longer interested in him. He becomes sexually aggressive, wanting to give her the experience of the wildest sex she has ever enjoyed.
