“Lesbos” by Sylvia Plath (1965)

Sylvia Plath is a 20th-century American confessional poet. Like Ondaatje, she injects her speakers with elements from her real life. In “Lesbos,” featured in her posthumous collection, Ariel (1965), Plath’s speaker is a wife, and her presentation of marriage deviates from the romanticized courtship of Ondaatje’s couple. In Plath’s poem, the desire is gone, and the wife contemplates having an affair and harming her child and kittens. Like desire, cruelty is a powerful force, and Plath uses free verse to let sadism reign. Though the definition is upsetting, Plath’s wife remains defined by her husband. Her continued connection to her husband produces the speaker’s distraught state.

“[Kissing the stomach]” by Michael Ondaatje (1984)

“[Kissing the stomach]” is the penultimate untitled poem in the “Tin Roof” section of Secular Love—the section that comes before the “Skin Boat” section. As with “The Cinnamon Peeler,” the poem centers on desire and touch. Yet “[Kissing the stomach]” displays a less possessive representation of desire. The speaker says, “We've each had our stomachs / kissed by strangers” (Line 6-7). Desire opens up and includes many people—not just a husband and wife. The speaker embraces the communal notion of desire when he tells the woman, “I bless everyone / who kissed you here” (Lines 10-11).