''Oriri'' (1940) is a long poem by the birth control pioneer Marie C. Stopes, published by Heinemann as a short book. Its subject is love between a "He" and a "She", and it is written in semi-dramatic form, with other members of the cast including "Spirits of Air", "Spirits of Earth" and other "Elementals". Stopes writes in the "Argument" that prefaces the poem: "Interwoven in the tale is a crystallisation of most of what matters fundamentally in the sciences of geology and physiology, in the art of love, and in religion." The poem brings together Stopes' scientific knowledge (she held a doctorate in

paleobotany Paleobotany, which is also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeogr ...

) with her theory of "erogamic love" (lifelong erotic pair-bonding), the latter of which was an important component of the theories that underlay her most influential and controversial publication, the

sex manual Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...

Married Love ''Married Love or Love in Marriage'' is a book by British academic Marie Stopes. It was one of the first books openly to discuss birth control. The book begins by stating that "More than ever to-day are happy homes needed. It is my hope that thi ...

'' (1918). In her biography of Stopes, Ruth Hall suggests that the poem was written when Stopes was in love with Keith Briant, a recent Oxford graduate who was considerably her junior Ruth Hall, ''Marie Stopes: A Biography'' (Andre Deutsch, 1977), p. 287(Stopes was just short of her sixtieth birthday when she wrote the poem).

References

{{reflist * * * * 1940 poems 1940 poetry books Heinemann (publisher) books Love poems British poetry books British poems