The great poets of the past, we find in this book, deliver more wisdom about love and marriage than anyone writing today: Christian love without any Puritan undertow, love closer to the Romans than to the Victorians, love still represented by Eros - what Spenser and Milton and Herrick show us on the way to deeper and deeper insights into both Christianity and love. With the wit and profundity of a seasoned university teacher Swardson treats inhibition, animality, spirituality, the higher eroticism, seduction, fornication, guilt, the double standard, purity, male chastity, gender equality, spontaneity, anonymity, cynicism, and idealism. He explores courtly love, the concept of the soul, the vocabulary of sin, same-sex marriage, post coital depression, the Playboy philosophy, and YMCA culture. He exposes the "missionary-position" slander and defines "the Christian lover." He gives advice on how to rise above culture and your own DNA. All from points in the poems. Addressed to young people.