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. Defil'd with horrid war the nuptial feast;
  2. Inflam'd by wine and woman's magic charms,
  3. They turn'd the jolly face of joy to arms.
  4. 'Twas woman urg'd the strife; a second fair
  5. Involv'd the Trojans in a second war.
  6. What wreck, what ruin, did a Woman bring
  7. On peaceful Latium, and its pious king!
  8. When Rome was young and in her infant state
  9. What woes did woman to our sires create!
  10. Into what peril was that city brought,
  11. When Sabine fathers for their daughters fought !
  12. Two lusty bulls I in the meads have view'd
  13. In combat join'd, and by their side there stood
  14. A milk-white heifer, who provok'd the fight,
  15. By each contended, but the conqueror's right;
  16. She gives them courage, her they both regard,
  17. As one that caus'd the war, and must reward.
  18. Compell'd by Cupid in his host to list
  19. (And who that has a heart can love resist ?)
  20. His soldier I have been, without the guilt
  21. Of blood, in any of our battles spilt;
  22. For him I've fought, as many more have done,
  23. And many rivals met, but murder'd none.
  1. With cruel art Corinna would destroy
  2. The ripening fruit of our repeated joy.
  3. While on herself she practises her skill,
  4. She's like the mother, not the child, to kill.
  5. Me she would not acquaint with what she did,
  6. From me a thing, which I abhorr'd, she hid;
  7. Well might I now be angry, but I fear,
  8. Ill as she is, I might endanger her.
  9. By me, I must confess, she did conceive,
  10. The fact is so, or else I so believe;
  11. We've cause to think, what may so likely be,
  12. So is, and then the babe belongs to me
  13. Oh Isis, who delight'st to haunt the fields,
  14. Where fruitful Nile his golden harvest yields,
  15. Where with seven mouths into the sea it falls,
  16. And hast thy walks around Canope's walls,
  17. Who Memphis visit'st, and the Pharian tower,
  18. Assist Corinna with thy friendly powers.
  19. Thee by thy silver Sistra I conjure,
  20. A life so precious by thy aid secure;
  21. So mayst thou with Osiris still find grace:
  22. By Anubis's venerable face,
  23. I pray thee, so may still thy rights divine
  24. Flourish, and serpents round thy offerings twine
  25. May Apis with his horns the pomp attend,
  26. And be to thee, as thou'rt to her, a friend.
  27. Look down, oh Isis! on the teeming fair,