But F. Rückert sings with pain and mockery:
With fervour the hard stone I'm kissing,
For your heart is as hard as a stone.
Such oscula impropria are often mentioned by ancient as well as modern poets. Propertius (I. 16) says:
Ah, oft I've hither sped with verse to greet
Thee, leaning on thy steps with kisses pressed.
How often, traitress, turning towards the street,
I've laid in secret garlands on thy crest.
Eighteen hundred years afterwards Dorat writes:
I kiss the kindly blades of grass
Because they have approached your charms:
The sands o'er which your footsteps pass,
And leafy boughs that stretched their arms
To hide our happiness, dear lass.
Lovers often send each other kisses through the air, as in Béranger's well-known song on the detestable Spring:
We loved before we ever met;
Our kisses crossed athwart the air.
But should the distance be too great for such a platonic interchange of kisses, certain
