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. A lovely cow, the fairest of the herd.
  2. By spotless white distinguished from the rest,
  3. Whiter than milk from her own udder press'd;
  4. Whiter than falling, or the driven snow,
  5. Before descending mists can make it flow.
  6. She, with a lusty bull, her happy mate,
  7. Delighted, on the tender herbage sat;
  8. There, as he crops the flow'rs, and chews the cud,
  9. Feasting a second time upon his food,
  10. His limbs with sudden heaviness oppress'd,
  11. He bends his head, and sinks to pleasing rest.
  12. A noisy crow, cleaving the liquid air,
  13. Thrice with lewd bill pick'd off the heifer's hair;
  14. The glossy white imbib'd a spreading blot,
  15. But on her breast appear'd a livid spot.
  16. The cow rose slowly from her consort's side,
  17. But when afar the grazing bull she spied,
  18. Frisk'd to the herd, with an impetuous haste,
  19. And pleas'd, in new luxuriant soil, her taste.
  20. Oh, learn'd diviner!