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. No maid than thee can boast a quicker eye,
  2. Nor sooner the sour husband's coming spy.
  3. Here, Nape, take this billet-doux, and bear
  4. My soul's soft wishes to the absent fair.
  5. If I can guess, thy heart is not of flint,
  6. Nor is there the least vein of iron in't;
  7. I something in thy looks and manners see
  8. Above the rudeness of thy low degree;
  9. A softer turn, to pity more inclined,
  10. Than vulgar souls, a more complacent mind;
  11. Thou feel'st, if I can guess, an equal flame,
  12. And thine and my distemper is the same.
  13. If how I do, she asks, do thou reply,
  14. For the dear night, and night's dear joys, I die.
  15. Tell her the letter will the rest explain,
  16. And does my soul, and all its hopes contain.
  17. But time, while I am speaking, flies: be sure
  18. To give the billet in a leisure hour:
  19. Don't be content with her imperfect view,
  20. But make her, when she has it, read it through.