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. I'll with my off'rings to thy altar come,
  2. With votive myrrh thy sacred fane perfume;
  3. The vows I make that thou my fair mayst bless,
  4. In words inscrib'd, I'll on thy shrine express:-
  5. "Ovid, the servant of Corinna, pray'd
  6. The goddess here, the teeming dame to aid."
  7. Ah, goddess! of my humble suit allow;
  8. Give place to my inscription and my vow.
  9. If frighted as I am, I may presume
  10. Your conduct to direct in time to come,
  11. Corinna, since you've suffer'd thus before,
  12. Ah, try the bold experiment no more!
  1. What boots it that the fair are free from war,
  2. And what that they're forbid the shield to bear,
  3. Against themselves if they knew arms employ
  4. And madly with new wounds their lives destroy?
  5. The cruel mother who did first contrive
  6. Her babe to butcher ere 'twas scarce alive,
  7. Who thus from nature's tender dictates swerv'd,
  8. To perish by her proper hands deserv'd.