Poet and Muse diptych of a wax tablet; the inscription has not survived, so there can be no way to identify the writer for whom it was made. In the literature that has accumulated about this diptych, various prominent figures have been offered as candidates: Ausonius, Boethius, and Claudian, and even earlier figures, like Ennius and Seneca, with whom the donor wished to be associated The muse represented is Erato, muse of lyric poetry, with her usual attribute, the cithara, which she rests upon an ornately fluted column. The poet on the facing panel is seated, roused from his contemplation by the inspiring presence
Erotic literature eroticism for which his poetry is noted resulted in W H Smith's banning of his "The Pleasures of the Flesh" (1966) from their shops. Canadian poet John Glassco wrote "Squire Hardman" (1967), a long poem in heroic couplets, purporting to be a reprint of an 18th-century poem by George Colman the Younger, on the theme of flagellation. The Australian poet Colin Dean as listed in the Australian Literature Resource database has an immense output of erotic verse e.g. Scribd. He has written erotic poetry in many genres: surrealist; imagist; Gothic; Phantasy; Decadent; and on Japanese, Chinese, Arabic and Indian themes.