Amores

Ovid

Ovid. Ovid's Art of Love (in three Books), the Remedy of Love, the Art of Beauty, the Court of Love, the History of Love, and Amours. Dryden, John, et al., translator. New York: Calvin Blanchard, 1855.

  1. But time, while I am speaking, flies: be sure
  2. To give the billet in a leisure hour:
  3. Don't be content with her imperfect view,
  4. But make her, when she has it, read it through.
  5. I charge thee, as she reads, observe her eyes,
  6. Catch, if thou canst, her gentle looks and sighs;
  7. As these are sure presages of my joy,
  8. So frowns and low'rs my flattering hopes destroy.
  9. Pray her, when she has read it, to indite
  10. An answer, and a long epistle write.
  11. I hate a billet, where at once I view
  12. A page all empty, but a line or two.
  13. Let her without a margin fill it up,
  14. And crowd it from the bottom to the top.
  15. But why should I her pretty fingers tire?
  16. A word's enough, and all that I desire.
  17. Ah, Nape, let her only bid me come;
  18. The page is large, which for that word has room.
  19. Her letter, like a conqu'ror's, shall be bound
  20. With bays, for it with conquests shall be crown'd.