Super Glossary

Imperfect Enjoyment

Entertainment / Literature / Imperfect Enjoyment: Readers commonly associate this motif or poetic genre with 17th-century male poets in France--but it derives ultimately from Latin poetry such as Ovid's Amores 3.7. English examples have been written by the John Wilmot (the Earl of Rochester) and Aphra Behn. Typically, the motif in French literature deals with a proud or arrogant male lover who discovers in the midst of a seduction that (a) he is unable to perform sexually, (b) something unattractive about the woman ruins his desire, or (c) the woman is an incompetent lover and this ends up spoiling their loveplay. Commonly, either the male lover or the poetic speaker blames the woman for this less-than-perfect coition. Aphra Behn, however, puts a unique spin on this perspective in 'The Disappointment.' In her poem, an omniscient point-of-view allows the reader to see the desires and emotions of the woman (Cloris) in her encounter with a masculine lover (Lysander), the male's inability to perform seems responsible for the woman's frustrated desires instead of the normal French convention for this motif.
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