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. When on the grass the Thracian nymphs recline,
  2. Of Bacchus full, and weary of their wine,
  3. Less lovely are their locks, than yours, less fair
  4. The ringlets of their soft dishevell'd hair:
  5. Softer was thine, like fleecy down it felt,
  6. And to the finger did as freely yield,
  7. How didst thou torture it, the curls to turn,
  8. Now with hot irons at thy toilet burn?
  9. This rack, with what obedience did it bear?
  10. "Ah spare," I cried, "thy patient tresses spare!
  11. To hurt them is a sin: this needless toil
  12. Forbear, and do not, what adorns thee, spoil.
  13. 'Tis now too late to give your labour o'er,
  14. Those tortur'd ringlets are, alas ! no more.
  15. Ah, cease the cruel thought, and cease to pass
  16. Such irksome minutes at your faithful glass !
  17. In vain thou seek'st thy silken locks to find;
  18. Banish the dear remembrance from thy mind.
  19. No weeds destroy'd them with their pois'nous juice,
  20. Nor canst thou witches' magic charms accuse,