there is no sex life in the grave

7/22/2019 There is No Sex Life in the Grave

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9.11.07

There is no sex life in the grave

These days I am reading a recent biography of the Spanish poetJaime Gil de Biedma

(1929-1990), written by Miguel Dalmau:Jaime Gil de Biedma. Retrato de un poeta,

Barcelona: Circe, 2004. (I have investigated the classical influence on Biedma's poetry,

that is why I am interested in his biography).

In the prologue to this biography, one can read a quotation of a line, supposedly

belonging to a poem byW. H. Auden(1907-1973):

"El sol brillaba sobre su cabeza romana y la memoria le trajo uno de aquellos versos de

Auden que tanto le agradaban:

...No hay vida sexual en la tumba." (p. 10)

"The sun shone upon his Roman head, and he remembered one of those lines by Auden

that pleased him so much:

...There is no sex life in the grave." [my translation]

After a hard search through Internet, looking for a poem by Auden including the line

"There is no sex life in the grave" or something similar,I have found the following text:

The moment

If you see a fair form, chase it

And if possible embrace it,

Be it a girl or boy.

Don't be bashful: be brash, be fresh.

Life is short, so enjoy

Whatever contact your flesh
http://www.xtec.es/~jducros/Jaime%20Gil%20de%20Biedma.htmlhttp://www.xtec.es/~jducros/Jaime%20Gil%20de%20Biedma.htmlhttp://www.xtec.es/~jducros/Jaime%20Gil%20de%20Biedma.htmlhttp://sincronia.cucsh.udg.mx/lagunainv02.htmhttp://sincronia.cucsh.udg.mx/lagunainv02.htmhttp://sincronia.cucsh.udg.mx/lagunainv02.htmhttp://www.audensociety.org/http://www.audensociety.org/http://www.audensociety.org/http://www.donshewey.com/2000_zine/the_moment.htmlhttp://www.donshewey.com/2000_zine/the_moment.htmlhttp://www.donshewey.com/2000_zine/the_moment.htmlhttp://www.donshewey.com/2000_zine/the_moment.htmlhttp://www.audensociety.org/http://sincronia.cucsh.udg.mx/lagunainv02.htmhttp://www.xtec.es/~jducros/Jaime%20Gil%20de%20Biedma.html


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May at the moment crave:

There's no sex life in the grave.

Actually, the tone of this poem sounds too vulgar and matter-of-fact to me, and I do not

really consider it to be by Auden. It seems that the poem was cited (as an epitaph) and

falsely attributed to Auden in Luchino Visconti's filmConversation piece(original title:Gruppo di famiglia in un interno) (1974). If any of my readers knows something more

about this matter, I would greatly appreciate his/her information.

Now, the subject-matter of the poem is a specific variation of the famouscarpe-diem

topos:"enjoy life and sex, because there is no sex life in the grave (that is, after death)".

Of course, the topos has classical roots. I remember a clear parallel passage in an

epigram by the Hellenistic poet Asclepiades of Samos, a contemporary of Theocritus (c.

320 BC). This epigram isPalatine Anthology5.85. Due to difficulties in writing with a

Greek font, I will only copy here a literary English translation by Andrew Lang (written

in 1888):

To a Girl

Believe me, love, it is not good

To hoard a mortal maidenhood;

In Hades thou wilt never find,

Maiden, a lover to thy mind;Love's for the living! presently

Ashes and dust in death are we.

The same topos is developped in the famous poem "To his coy Mistress", by Andrew

Marvel (1621-1678). We read in lines 21-40:

But at my back I alwaies hear

Times winged Charriot hurrying near:

And yonder all before us lye

Desarts of vast Eternity.

Thy Beauty shall no more be found;

Nor, in thy marble Vault, shall sound

My echoing Song: then Worms shall try

That long preserv'd Virginity:

And you quaint Honour turns to dust;

And into ashes all my Lust.

The grave's a fine and private place,

But none I think do there embrace.Now therefore, while the youthful hew

Sits on thy skin like morning [dew],

And while thy willing Soul transpires

At every pore with instant Fires,

Now let us sport us while we may;

And now, like am'rous birds of prey,

Rather at once our Time devour,

Than languish in his slow-chapt pow'r.

To conclude, I suspect that the poem "The moment", attributed to Auden in Visconti'sfilm, is not really by Auden. And it is likely that its anonymous author (maybe Visconti
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=11411http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=11411http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=11411http://www.uco.es/~ca1lamag/textos-4.htmhttp://www.uco.es/~ca1lamag/textos-4.htmhttp://www.uco.es/~ca1lamag/textos-4.htmhttp://www.uco.es/~ca1lamag/textos-4.htmhttp://www.uco.es/~ca1lamag/textos-4.htmhttp://www.uco.es/~ca1lamag/textos-4.htmhttp://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=11411


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himself or a scriptwriter of the film) was imitating a section of "To his coy Mistress" by

Marvel.

P.S. (10th November, 2007). I have writtena new entry on this literary topos, where I

explain that yes, the poem is by Auden.

Labels:Jaime Gil de Biedma,Tradicin Clsica,tpicos literarios

posted by Gabriel Laguna at5:15 PM

9.11.07

There is no sex life in the grave (II)

Dediqu ya unpost, hace tiempo, al tpico literario que podramos etiquetar como "No

hay vida sexual tras la tumba" ("There is no sexual life in the grave"), al hilo de una cita

de Jaime Gil de Biedma.Ver aqu.Comentaba entonces que haba localizado un texto,

supuestamente de Auden, sobre el tema. Pero, dado el estilo poco sutil del poema, me

inclinaba por pensar que no era de este autor. Una investigacin ms cuidadosa ha

aportado resultados: el poema es de Auden, pero en realidad es un pasaje procedente de

una "antimasque" (especie de sainete grotesco o esperpento) titulada The Entertainment

of the Senses. Adems, el texto est puesto en boca de un mono (s, un mono). De ah,

quiz, su vulgaridad. A continuacin reproduzco en estepost un breve artculo que

sobre la cuestin he publicado en la revista CA News36 (June 2007), pgs. 7-8 (con lacolaboracin de Mnica M. Martnez), en el que trazamos la historia del motivo en la
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poesa clsica e inglesa.

Nota:CA Newses el rgano de The Classical Association (la Sociedad de Estudios

Clsicos britnica).

THERE IS NO SEX LIFE IN THE GRAVE:

FROM THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY

TO W. H. AUDEN

The carpe diemis one of the most ancient and celebrated tropes in Western Literature. It is an

epicurean exhortation to seize the day and to enjoy love and wine as a kind of solace for the

brevity of human life. This invitation becomes an instrument of seduction when the poetattempts to convince the female addressee that she should love him now, while she is still

young and fresh like a rose, being her beauty as ephemeral as that of the flower. As an

argument to strengthen his case, the poet may adduce then thepost mortem nulla voluptas

argument: there is no sex life in the grave. Statements of this kind did already occur in the

Anacreontea(IV, IX, XXXVI) and in the Greek Anthology. Among the many epigrams on love and

death in the latter, the following (V 85), written by the Hellenistic poet Asclepiades of Samos,

is by far the most meaningful:

.

' , .
http://www.classicalassociation.org/CANews.htmhttp://www.classicalassociation.org/CANews.htmhttp://www.classicalassociation.org/CANews.htmhttp://2.bp.blogspot.com/_AT8OwMGQeyc/RzTxRrKVLhI/AAAAAAAAAA0/0eG-xQhOXXw/s1600-h/death_maiden_21.jpghttp://www.classicalassociation.org/CANews.htm


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'

, , .

Around 1888, Andrew Lang wrote an English version of the Greek epigram:

TO A GIRL

Believe me, love, it is not good

To hoard a mortal maidenhood;

In Hades thou wilt never find,

Maiden, a lover to thy mind;

Loves for the living! presently

Ashes and dust in death are we.

This motif is developed in English Literature. Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) resorts to it in hisfamous To his coyMistress, a poem included in many compilations of seventeenth-century

poetry. In the first part of this poem (ll. 1-20), Marvell pictures the hypothesis that he and his

lady could enjoy their love without limits of space and time: in that case there would be no

need to hurry or seize the day. In the second part (ll. 21-32), Marvell envisages the corruption

of the tomb, developing thepost mortem nulla voluptas argument:

But at my back I alwaies hear

Times winged Charriot hurrying near:

And yonder all before us lye

Desarts of vast Eternity.Thy Beauty shall no more be found;

Nor, in thy marble Vault, shall sound

My echoing Song: then Worms shall try

That long preservd Virginity:

And your quaint Honour turn to dust;

And into ashes all my Lust.

The Gravesa fine and private place,

But none I think do there embrace.

As death is not only inevitable but joyless, the pleasures of life, specially love and sex, must be

boldly seized. This is the conclusion reached by the poems speaker in the third part (ll. 33-46).

There are other occurrences of thepost mortem nulla voluptasmotif in English literature. One

quite famous in contemporary poetry appears in The Entertainment of the Senses(1973), an

antimasque written by W. H. Auden (1907-1973) and Chester Kallman (1921-1975). The

characters of this play are five apes, who represent the five senses and speak by turns, and a

CHAMBERLAIN, who introduces and closes the antimasque. All of them encourage the

audience to enjoy the pleasures of the senses before the arrival of Death. The FIRST APE, who

represents Touch, asserts:


6/6

When you see a fair form, chase it

And if possible embrace it,

Be it a girl or boy.

Dont be bashful: be brash, be fresh.

Life is short, so enjoy

Whatever contact your flesh

May at the moment crave:

Theres no sex-life in the grave.

Incidentally, this passage is quoted in the film Gruppo di Famiglia in un Interno(1974), by L.

Visconti. Where Marvell had warned his lady of times fleeting nature and the imminence of

death, urging her to physically consummate their love, these contemporary poets urge their

audience to seize the day promiscuously. In both we can see the refusal to exchange the

pleasures of the present for a dubious promise of happiness in a world to come. They knew for

sure: there is no sex life in the grave.

Gabriel Laguna Mariscal (University of Crdoba)

Mnica Mara Martnez-Sariego (University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria)

Labels:Jaime Gil de Biedma,Tradicin Clsica,tpicos literarios

posted by Gabriel Laguna at11:54 PM
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