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. Cupid, be gone! I can for beauty sigh,
  2. But not be forc'd to wish each hour to die;
  3. For so I wish whene'er my restless thoughts
  4. Dwell on her falsehoods and repeated faults.
  5. All other plagues know sometimes to be civil,
  6. But woman is a sure, perpetual evil.
  7. No pimp I bribe to prove thy perjur'd vows,
  8. Nor intercepted once thy billet-doux.
  9. 0, cou dst thou but my arguments disprove!
  10. A cause so good is here unwish'd in love.
  11. Happy, who dares t' avow his censur'd flame,
  12. And vindicate the secret tripping dame.
  13. Blushless, tho' guilty, with uplifted eyes,
  14. "'Tis false, my life, by yon bright Heaven," she cries.
  15. Himself he fools, and madly feeds his grief,
  16. Who from conviction seeks the sad relief.
  17. Wretched I saw thy wantonness unsought,
  18. By thee in sleep secure and eyeless thought;
  19. With glances on each other how you hung!
  20. How ev'ry nod had more than half a tongue!