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The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II By: Unknown (43 BC - 18?) |
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In this eBook, a circumflex (^) is used to indicate that the rest of
the word is a superscript. Asterisks () are placed around words that
were typeset in a Blackletter typeface in the original book. Book 3 p. 105. [Illustration] R. Westall R.A. del^l. E. Scriven sculp^t Caught by the image of his beauteous face,
He loves th' unbody'd form: a substance thinks
The shadow: Pub. 1807, for the Author.
THE
METAMORPHOSES
OF
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
IN
English Blank Verse
Translated by
J. J. HOWARD. VOL. 1. [Illustration] London 1807. Printed for the Author; & Sold by John Hatchard,
Bookseller to Her Majesty. Piccadilly; H. D. Symonds, Paternoster Row
& James Asperne Cornhill. TO
The Patronage
OF
THE RIGHT HONORABLE
WILLIAM,
EARL OF LONSDALE,
KNIGHT
OF THE
MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER,
&c. &c. &c. THE TRANSLATOR CONFIDES HIS ATTEMPT TO RENDER THE BEAUTIES OF OVID
MORE ACCESSIBLE TO ENGLISH READERS, AND TO CHASTEN THE PRURIENCE OF
HIS IDEAS AND HIS LANGUAGE, SO AS TO FIT HIS WRITINGS FOR MORE
GENERAL PERUSAL. Pimlico, Aug. 22, 1807. Bailey & Macdonald, Printers,
3, Harris's Place, Pantheon, Oxford Street.
THE First Book OF THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID.
From bodies various form'd, mutative shapes
My Muse would sing: Celestial powers give aid!
From you those changes sprung, inspire my pen;
Connect each period of my venturous song
Unsever'd, from old Chaös' rude misrule,
Till now the world beneath Augustus smiles. While yet nor earth nor sea their place possest,
Nor that cerulean canopy which hangs
O'ershadowing all, each undistinguish'd lay,
And one dead form all Nature's features bore;
Unshapely, rude, and Chaos justly nam'd.
Together struggling laid, each element
Confusion strange begat: Sol had not yet
Whirl'd through the blue expanse his burning car:
Nor Luna yet had lighted forth her lamp,
Nor fed her waning light with borrowed rays.
No globous earth pois'd inly by its weight,
Hung pendent in the circumambient sky:
The sky was not: Nor Amphitrité had
Clasp'd round the land her wide encircling arms.
Unfirm the earth, with water mix'd and air;
Opaque the air; unfluid were the waves.
Together clash'd the elements confus'd:
Cold strove with heat, and moisture drought oppos'd;
Light, heavy, hard, and soft, in combat join'd. Uprose the world's great Lord, the strife dissolv'd,
The firm earth from the blue sky plac'd apart;
Roll'd back the waves from off the land, and fixt
Where pure ethereal joins with foggy air.
Defin'd each element, and from the mass
Chaötic, rang'd select, in concord firm
He bound, and all agreed. On high upsprung
The fiery ether to the utmost heaven:
The atmospheric air, in lightness next,
Upfloated: dense the solid earth dragg'd down
The heavier mass; and girt on every side
By waves circumfluent, seiz'd her place below. This done, the mass this deity unknown
Divides; each part dispos'd in order lays:
First earth he rounds, in form a sphere immense,
Equal on every side: then bids the seas,
Pent in by banks, spread their rude waves abroad,
By strong winds vext; and clasp within their arms
The tortuous shores: and marshes wide he adds,
Pure springs and lakes: he bounds with shelving banks
The streams smooth gliding; slowly creeping, some
The arid earth absorbs; furious some rush,
And in the watery plain their waves disgorge;
Their narrow bounds escap'd, to billows rise,
And lash the sandy shores. He bade the plains
Extend; the vallies sink; the groves to bloom;
And rocky hills to lift their heads aloft.
And as two zones the northern heaven restrain,
The southern two, and one the hotter midst,
With five the Godhead girt th' inclosed earth,
And climates five upon its face imprest.
The midst from heat inhabitable: snows
Eternal cover two: 'twixt these extremes
Two temperate regions lie, where heat and cold
Meet in due mixture; 'bove the whole light air
Was hung: as water floats above the land,
So fire 'bove air ascends... Continue reading book >>
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Classics (antiquity) |
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Myths/Legends |
Poetry |
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