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. I ask thee not to spread the foldings wide;
  2. Keep it at jar,-I'll softly by thee slide.
  3. I to love's labours have so long been us'd,
  4. My shapes are to a lath's lank size reduc'd.
  5. The smallest crevice will my bus'ness do,
  6. It cannot be so straight but I'll slip through.
  7. Love guides me when by night I walk the street,
  8. And when I grope my way directs my feet.
  9. By night I was a youth afraid to walk,
  10. Frighted by children and old nurses' talk;
  11. I wonder'd men could wander in the gloom,
  12. And kept, for fear of spirits, close at home.
  13. Love and his mother, when they knew my care,
  14. Cried, "Fool, thou shalt not long these phantoms fear."
  15. Nor fear'd I long, for love my heart possess'd;
  16. Those visions vanish'd, and my terrors ceas'd:
  17. Nor ghosts nor scourers did I dread, but stroll'd
  18. The streets a-nights, and grew in peril bold.
  19. Thee only do I fear, and trembling stand
  20. To wait the motions of thy tardy hand: