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. Who but a soldier, and a lover, can
  2. Bear the night's cold, in show'rs of hail and rain?
  3. One in continual watch his station keeps,
  4. Or on the earth in broken slumbers sleeps;
  5. The other takes his still repeated round
  6. By mistress' house — then lodges on the ground.
  7. Soldiers, and lovers, with a careful eye,
  8. Observe the motions of the enemy:
  9. One to the walls makes his approach in form,
  10. Pushes the siege, and takes the town by storm:
  11. The other lays his close to Celia's fort,
  12. Presses his point, and gains the wish'd-for port.
  13. As soldiers, when the foe securely lies
  14. In sleep, and wine dissolv'd, the camp surprise;
  15. So when the jealous to their rest remove,
  16. And all is hush'd, — the other steals to love.
  17. You then, who think that love's an idle fit,
  18. Know, that it is the exercise of wit.
  19. In flames of love the fierce Achilles burns,
  20. And, quitting arms, absent Briseis mourns: