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. To an old wood at last I came, whose shade
  2. Impress'd a horror on the gloom it made,
  3. And ev'ry step with trembling feet I trod,
  4. Profan'd, I thought, the dwelling of a god.
  5. An altar there was rais'd by hands divine,
  6. And fragrant incense flam'd around the shrine.
  7. Chaste matrons there their vow'd oblations pay,
  8. And celebrate with joyful hymns the day.
  9. Soon as the fife the signal gives, they move
  10. In long procession through the sacred grove
  11. Branches and flow'rs are with devotion spread
  12. O'er all the way, and priestly vestments laid.
  13. Next after these, through loud acclaims, they lead
  14. A cow milk white, and of Phaliscan breed;
  15. Then a young steer, whose forehead ne'er had borne
  16. The crooked honours of the butting horn.
  17. The least of all the victims was a swine,
  18. And then a ram whose horns around his temples twine.
  19. A goat, whom most the goddess hates, comes last;
  20. The present feels her vengeance for the past.