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 ventur'd with success on tragedy;
  2. My genius with a moving scene agrees,
  3. And if I ventured further I might please:
  4. But love my heroics makes a jest,
  5. And laughs to see me in my buskins drest.
  6. Asham'd, and weary of this tragic whim,
  7. For tender thoughts I quitted the sublime.
  8. My mind my mistress bends another way,
  9. Her must my muse in all her songs obey;
  10. Though oft I do not what I write approve,
  11. Like, or not like it, I must sing of love.
  12. Whether for Ithaca's illustrious dame,
  13. To great Ulysses I a letter frame,
  14. Or for Oenone tender things indite,
  15. Or soft complaints for injur'd Phillis write;
  16. Whether fair Canace's incestuous care
  17. I sooth, or flatter Dido's fierce despair;
  18. Whether I fan Medea's raging fire,
  19. Or for sweet Sappho touch the Lesbian lyre;
  20. Whether I Phaedra's lawless love relate,