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. Let me a fair and gentle mistress have,
  2. And then proclaim aloud that I'm her slave.
  3. Beauty is apt to swell a maiden's mind,
  4. And thus Corinna is to pride inclin'd:
  5. But as she is above all maiden's fair,
  6. What's pride in them is insolence in her;
  7. Less fair I wish she was, or knew it less;
  8. How learnt she, she is lovely by her face!
  9. Her mirror tells her so, she often tries
  10. Her mirror, and believes her charming eyes.
  11. The looks she then puts on, are still her best,
  12. And she ne'er uses it but when she's dress'd.
  13. Though wide the empire of your beauties spread,
  14. Beauty to draw my am'rous glances made:
  15. Compare your servant's merit with your eyes,
  16. You'll find no cause his service to dispise.
  17. Don't think I press upon your pride too hard.
  18. For little things may be with great compar'd:
  19. We're told Calypso, an immortal pow'r,
  20. Detain'd a mortal in th' Ogygian pow'r,