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. If, like the damsels of the Sabine race,
  2. She's rude, I look upon it as grimace;
  3. That sullen as she seems at first, 'tis art,
  4. That I the more may prize the conquest or her heart.
  5. New joys, if she's a wit, I hope to find;
  6. And with her body, to possess her mind:
  7. If foolish, I in that can see no harm,
  8. And in her very folly find a charm.
  9. I know a maid so very fond, and dull,
  10. To me she thinks Callimachus a fool.
  11. I soon am pleas'd with one that's pleas'd with me,
  12. Alike we in our taste and wish agree:
  13. But if the fair my verses don't approve,
  14. I bragging tell her, she will like my love;
  15. If with her tongue, or with her heel she's brisk,
  16. Her prattle pleases, and her gamesome frisk;
  17. But if she's heavy, I suppose at night
  18. She'll change, and prove, as I would have her, light,
  19. The fair that sings, enchants me with her voice;
  20. Oh, what a gust it gives a lover's joys!