Who are the "Lovers" in the poem, What Lips My Lips Have Kissed?

The lovers of the poem are anonymous and plentiful, appearing as a group rather than specific people. At the beginning of the poem, the speaker literally disembodies these lovers by referring to them simply as "lips" and "arms" that have appeared beside her (1-2). As the poem continues, it becomes clear that the speaker thinks of these lovers not as individuals but as a collective experience of her own, referring to them as "unremembered lads" who have slept beside her (7). The lovers' anonymity is one of the central reasons that this poem can be read as a feminist lyric.