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. Though a few ploughs serve my paternal fields,
  2. Nor my small table many dishes yields;
  3. Yet Bacchus, Phoebus, and the tuneful nine,
  4. Are all my friends, and to my side incline,
  5. And love's great god, at last, will make me thine.
  6. Heav'n knows, dear maid, I love no other fair;
  7. In thee lives all my love, my heav'n lies there.
  8. Oh! may I by indulgent Fate's decree,
  9. With thee lead all my life, and die with thee.
  10. Thy beauties yield me my transporting theme;
  11. And while I celebrate thy charming name,
  12. My verse shall be as sacred as my flame.
  13. Jove's sev'ral rapes, his injur'd Io's wrongs,
  14. Are made immortal in his poet's songs.
  15. Verse still reveals where Leda's flames began,
  16. Rais'd by the secret godhead in the swan,
  17. The story of the rape Europa bore,
  18. Shall last while winds shall rage, or waters roar.
  19. Your name shall live like theirs, while verse endures,
  20. And mine be ever writ, and read with yours.