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. Their talents on the fate of Thebes and Troy,
  2. While others Caesar's godlike acts rehearse,
  3. Corinna is the subject of my verse.
  4. Oh, that I ne'er had known the art to please,
  5. But written without genius and success.
  6. Why did the town so readily believe
  7. My verse, and why to songs such credit give ?
  8. Sure poetry s the same it ever was,
  9. And poets ne'er for oracles did pass.
  10. Why is such stress upon my writings laid?
  11. Why such regard to what by me is said ?
  12. I wish the tales I've of Corinna told,
  13. Had been receiv'd as fables were of old;
  14. Of furious Scylla's horrid shape we read,
  15. And how she scalp'd her hoary father's lead:
  16. Of her fair face, and downward how she takes
  17. The wolf's fierce form, the dog's, or curling snake's;
  18. Serpents for hair, in ancient song we meet,
  19. And man and horse with wings instead of feet.
  20. Huge Tityon from the skies the poets flung,