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. Augustus ne'er had reign'd, nor Julius liv'd.
  2. And thou, whose beauty is the boast of fame,
  3. Hadst perish'd, had thy mother done the same;
  4. Nor had I liv'd love's faithful slave to be,
  5. Had my own mother dealt as ill by me.
  6. Ah, vile invention, ah, accurs'd design,
  7. To rob of rip'ning fruit the loaded vine
  8. Ah, let it grow for nature's use mature,
  9. Ah, let it its full length of time endure;
  10. 'Twill of itself, alas! too soon decay,
  11. And quickly fall, like autumn leaves, away
  12. Why barb'rously dost thou thy bowels tear
  13. To kill the human load that quickens there?
  14. On venom'd drugs why venture, to destroy
  15. The pledge of pleasure past, the promis'd boy?
  16. Medea, guilty of her childrens' blood,
  17. The mark of ev'ry age's curse has stood;
  18. And Atys, murder'd by his mothers rage,
  19. Been pitied since by each succeeding age;