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. What may this visionary dream portend,
  2. If dreams in any future truth can end ?
  3. The prophet nicely weighs what I relate,
  4. And thus denounces in the voice of fate:-
  5. "That heat you tried to shun i' th' shady grove,
  6. But shunn'd in vain, was the fierce heat of love.
  7. The cow denotes the nymph, your only care,
  8. (For white's th' expressive image of the fair,)
  9. And you the bull, abandon'd to despair.
  10. The picking crow some busy bawd implies,
  11. Who with base arts will soon seduce your prim.
  12. You saw the cow to fresher pasture range,
  13. So will your nymph for richer lovers change;
  14. As mixing with the herd you saw her rove,
  15. So will the fair pursue promiscuous love;
  16. Soon will you find a foul incestuous blot,
  17. As on the cow you view'd the livid spot."
  18. At this my blood retired, with dismal fright,
  19. And left me pale as death ; my fainting sight
  20. Was quite o'ercast in dusky shades of night.