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. And render to the mighty gods your vow:
  2. So, as you pass, th' attending gazing crowd,
  3. By their applause shall speak your courage loud:
  4. Let your sad captive in the front appear,
  5. With streaming cheeks, and with dishevell'd hair.
  6. Such lips were form'd for kinder words than these,
  7. Wounds made by lovers' furious ecstasies.
  8. Though like a torrent I was hurried on,
  9. A slave to passion which I could not shun,
  10. I might have only pierc'd her tender ear
  11. With threatening language, such as virgins fear.
  12. Fear having chill'd the current of her blood,
  13. She pale as Parian marble statue stood;
  14. Tears, which suspense did for a while restrain,
  15. Gush'd forth, and down her cheeks the deluge ran.
  16. As when the sun does by a powerful beam
  17. Dissolve the frost, it runs into a stream.
  18. The lamentable objects struck me dead,
  19. And tears of blood to quench those tears I shed;
  20. Thrice at her feet the prostrate suppliant fell,