7/22/2020 The Hug by Thom Gunn | Poetry Foundation

The Hug

BY T H O M G U N N

It was your birthday, we had drunk and dined

Half of the night with our old friend
Who'd showed us in the end
To a bed I reached in one drunk stride.
Already I lay snug,
And drowsy with the wine dozed on one side.

I dozed, I slept. My sleep broke on a hug,

Suddenly, from behind,
In which the full lengths of our bodies pressed:
Your instep to my heel,
My shoulder-blades against your chest.
It was not sex, but I could feel
The whole strength of your body set,
Or braced, to mine,
And locking me to you
As if we were still twenty-two
When our grand passion had not yet
Become familial.
My quick sleep had deleted all
Of intervening time and place.
I only knew
The stay of your secure firm dry embrace.

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7/22/2020 The Hug by Thom Gunn | Poetry Foundation

Thom Gunn, "The Hug" from The Man with Night Sweats. Copyright © 1992 by Thom Gunn. Used

by permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC, http://us.macmillan.com/fsg. All rights reserved.

Caution: Users are warned that this work is protected under copyright laws and downloading is

strictly prohibited. The right to reproduce or transfer the work via any medium must be secured with

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

Source: Collected Poems (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994)

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