Sensations Of A Kiss
Sensations of a Kiss
Despite the relative tastelessness of kisses, they are usually
referred to as sweet. Tasting of wine, strawberries and honey
are some of the most common descriptions of lover's kisses,
although some poets are more creative. For example, The Song of
Songs says, "Thy lips drip as the honeycomb, my spouse: Honey
and milk are under thy tongue."
The feeling of a kiss is also described in a multitude of ways,
The pounding of the heart, quivering of the limbs, pain in the
chest and quickening of the breath are some examples of this.
The Persian poet Ha-fez, writes that he fears he will "char her
delicate lips" when he writes of kissing his beloved.
The Spirit Within a Kiss
"At what else does that touching of lips aim but at a junction
of souls?"
Favorinus of Arles
The Babylonian goddess of love, Ishtar, was said to hold life in
her mouth, offering spiritual delight to those who worshipped
her. "That rarest gift, the honeyed kiss of love/ On earth, is
sweeter bliss than gods enjoy," she tells one of her followers.
Another example of the use of kisses as an exchange of life
force or spirit is in the Egyptian legend of Osiris and Isis.
When Osiris' jealous brother, Set, threw him into the Nile, his
wife Isis searched for his body in the river and breathed life
into him through a kiss.
The Renaissance saw a rapid rise in the view of kissing as an
exchange of souls, and as an offering of the self to the other
person. Allusions to kissing in poetry included an eternal kiss,
a swoon that carried the couple almost to death, and most
importantly, the diffusion of one soul into the body of the
other.
Perhaps one of the most potent notions of kissing revolves
around the belief in its life force and vitality. The Romans
particularly believed that kissing a dying lover would keep the
spirit in the body longer. Ovid, particularly, mourns that his
wife will not be able to extend his life with her love because
of his exile. Kisses could even follow the dead into the
Underworld as a comfort to the shades of the dead.