I have recently been looking at what the Victorians meant by ‘manliness’ – a word that they used frequently. Manly calves seem to have been a surprising indicator – though no odder than a six pack, I expect.
So my eyes noticed this epigram by John Donne (1572-1631), which I must have seen many times before in my (badly) foxed & well thumbed 1971 edition of his Complete Verse, without remembering it at all.
Thou call’st me effeminate, for I love women’s joys;
I call not thee manly, though thou follow boys.
