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 when her pray'r to stay he would not grant,
  2. So strong her love, she kept him by constraint.
  3. A Nereid took the Pythian to her arms.
  4. And Numa knew divine Egeria's charms.
  5. Vulcan though lame, and of a form obscene,
  6. Was oft made happy by the Paphian queen;
  7. She matter'd not his limping, but approv'd
  8. His flame, and saw no faults in him she lov'd
  9. My verses are unequal like his feet,
  10. Yet the long kindly with the shorter meet.
  11. As they with them, why shouldst thou not with me
  12. Comply, my life and my divinity !
  13. Myself, when I am in thy arms, I'll own
  14. Thy subject, and the bed shall be thy throne;
  15. Thou there, my lovely queen, shall give me laws,
  16. Nor in my absence, to rejoice have cause,
  17. Nor ever shall my services be blam'd
  18. Nor shalt thou of thy servant be asham'd.
  19. My poetry's my purse, my fortun's there,
  20. I have no other way to win the fair;