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. Ill-omen'd birds, how luckless was the day,
  2. When o'er my love you did your wings display!
  3. What wayward orb, what inauspicious star
  4. Did then rule heav'n ? what gods against me war?
  5. She who so much my fatal passion wrongs,
  6. Was known and first made famous by my songs.
  7. I lov'd her first, and lov'd her then alone,
  8. But now, I fear, I share her with the town.
  9. Am I deceiv'd or can she be the same,
  10. Who only to my verses owes her fame
  11. My verse a price upon her beauty laid,
  12. And by my praises she her market made;
  13. Whom but myself can I with reason blame?
  14. Without me she had never had a name.
  15. Did I do this, who knew her soul so well?
  16. Dearly to me she did her favours sell;
  17. And when the wares were to the public known,
  18. Why should I think she'd sell to me alone ?
  19. 'Twas I proclaim'd to all the town her charms,
  20. And tempted cullies to her venal arms;