The Seventh Phallic Poem, by Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a sequence of seven poems, called The Seven Phallic Poems, all on the theme of love and all containing phallic imagery. What I enjoy about this, the seventh poem in the sequence, is more than just the way Rilke captures so exactly the experience of orgasm. It is also the way he combines the wonderful physicality of that human experience with the emotional component that exists so sweetly for people who truly love each other.

VII

How I called you. This is the mute call
which within me has grown sweet awhile.
Now step after step into you I thrust all
and my semen climbs gladly like a child.
You primal peak of pleasure: suddenly well-nigh
breathless it leaps to your inner ridge.
O surrender yourself to feeling its prilgrimage;
for you'll be hurled down when it waves on high.

November, 1915