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. Why are more leaves brought to the shady wood,
  2. Stars to the sky, or waters to the flood ?
  3. Yet better so than not to love at all;
  4. Still on my foes may such dull blessings fall.
  5. May they, insipidly supine, be spread
  6. Along the middle of a widowed bed;
  7. While I with sprightliness love's vigil's keep,
  8. Stretch'd out for something far more sweet than sleep.
  9. Others from ruin fly, to mine I run,
  10. To be by women pleasingly undone,
  11. Longing for two, since undestroy'd by one.
  12. Still let my slender limbs for love suffice;
  13. I want no nerves, but want the bulky size.
  14. My limbs, tho' lean are not in vain display'd;
  15. From me no female ever rose a maid.
  16. Oft have I, when a luscious night was spent,
  17. Saluted morn, nor cloy'd nor impotent.
  18. Happy, who gasps in love his latest breath;
  19. Give me, ye gods, so softly sweet a death !
  20. Let the rough warriors grapple on the plain,