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. Trust me, my Atticus, in love are wars;
  2. And Cupid has his camp, as well as Mars:
  3. The age that's fit for war best suits with love,
  4. The old in both unserviceable prove,
  5. Infirm in war, and impotent in love.
  6. The soldiers which a general does require,
  7. Are such as ladies would in bed desire:
  8. Who but a soldier, and a lover, can
  9. Bear the night's cold, in show'rs of hail and rain?
  10. One in continual watch his station keeps,
  11. Or on the earth in broken slumbers sleeps;
  12. The other takes his still repeated round
  13. By mistress' house — then lodges on the ground.
  14. Soldiers, and lovers, with a careful eye,
  15. Observe the motions of the enemy:
  16. One to the walls makes his approach in form,
  17. Pushes the siege, and takes the town by storm:
  18. The other lays his close to Celia's fort,
  19. Presses his point, and gains the wish'd-for port.
  20. As soldiers, when the foe securely lies