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. Invite my eye, and tempt my greedy hand;
  2. But half the pleasure of enjoyment's gone;
  3. Since I must pluck them single and alone;
  4. Why could not nature's kindness first contrive,
  5. That faithful lovers should like spirits live,
  6. Mix'd in one point and yet divided lie,
  7. Enjoying an united liberty?
  8. But since we must thro' distant regions go,
  9. Why was not the same way design'd for two?
  10. One single care determined still for both,
  11. And the kind virgin join'd the loving youth?
  12. Then should I think it pleasant way to go
  13. Oe'r Alpine frost, and trace the hills of snow;
  14. Then should I dare to view the horrid moors,
  15. And walk the deserts of the Libyan shores;
  16. Hear Scylla bark, and see Charybdis rave,
  17. Suck in and vomit out the threat'ning wave;
  18. Fearless through all I'd steer my feeble barge,
  19. Secure, and safe with the celestial charge,
  20. But now, though here my grateful fields afford