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. Fearless through all I'd steer my feeble barge,
  2. Secure, and safe with the celestial charge,
  3. But now, though here my grateful fields afford
  4. Choice fruits to cheer their malancholy lord;
  5. Though here obedient streams the gard'ner leads,
  6. In narrow channels through my flow'ry beds;
  7. The poplars rise, and spread a shady grove,
  8. Where I might lie, my little life improve,
  9. And spend my minutes 'twixt a muse and love:
  10. Yet these contributes little to my ease,
  11. For without you they lose the power to please;
  12. I seem to walk oe'r the fields of naked sand,
  13. Or tread an antic maze in fairy land,
  14. Where frightful specires, and pale shades appear,
  15. And hollow groans invade my troubled ear;
  16. Where ev'ry breeze that through my arbour flies,
  17. First sadly murmurs, and then turns to sighs.
  18. The vines love elms; what elms from vines remove?
  19. Then why should I be parted from my love?
  20. And yet by me you once devoutly swore,
  21. By your own eyes, those stars that I adore,
  22. That all my bus'ness you would make your own,
  23. And never suffer me to be alone:
  24. But faithless woman nat'rally deceives,
  25. Their frequent oaths are like the falling leaves,
  26. Which when a storm has from the branches tore
  27. Are lost by ev'ry blast, and seen no more:
  28. Yet if you will be true, your vows retrieve,
  29. Be kind, and I can easily forgive ;
  30. Prepare your coach, to me direct your course,
  31. Drive fiercely on, and lash the lazy horse;
  32. And while you ride I will prolong the day,
  33. And try the power of verse to smooth your way.
  34. Sink down ye mountains, sink ye lofty hills,
  35. Ye vallies be obedient to her wheels,
  36. Ye streams be dry, ye hindr'ing woods remove,
  37. 'Tis love that drives, and all must yield to love !
  1. If there's a wretch, who thinks it is a shame,
  2. To serve a lovely and a loving dame:
  3. If such a slave he loads with infamy,
  4. I'm willing he should judge as hard of me;
  5. I'm willing all the world should know my shame
  6. If Venus will abate my raging flame.
  7. Let me a fair and gentle mistress have,
  8. And then proclaim aloud that I'm her slave.
  9. Beauty is apt to swell a maiden's mind,
  10. And thus Corinna is to pride inclin'd:
  11. But as she is above all maiden's fair,
  12. What's pride in them is insolence in her;
  13. Less fair I wish she was, or knew it less;