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. Curse on the instruments of my disgrace !
  2. May you lie rotting in some filthy place;
  3. By carts run o'er may you to bits be torn,
  4. And your mishap revenge Corinna's scorn !
  5. The man that first to smooth your surface toil'd,
  6. The wooden work with hands impure defil'd;
  7. Gibbets and racks should of the wood be made,
  8. And the rough tools of all the murd'ring trade.
  9. Bats roosted in its branches as it grew,
  10. And birds of prey for shelter thither flew:
  11. The vulture, and all kind of rav'nous fowl,
  12. There hatch their young, and there the om'nous owl.
  13. How mad to use such tablets must I be?
  14. Curst and ill fated, as their parent tree!
  15. Were these fit things soft sentiments to bear,
  16. And to a lady tell a lover's care?
  17. Lawyers, on you, might horrid jargon write,
  18. With sound the ear, with sense the soul to flight.
  19. Well might your plain the wicked writings bear
  20. Where the rich miser robs the ruin'd heir.