Art of Love

Overview

The celebrated Amores, comprising the four poems The Loves, The Art of Beauty, The Remedies for Love, and The Art of Love are the product of Ovid’s late youth and jaunty middle age. In these verses, not only do we hear the passionate voice of one of the most talented poets of antiquity, but we can perceive the hum and stir of the Roman streets, the crowds in the fashionable walks, the light of parties at evening, the theaters, the races, the shops, and the chatter in the boudoirs. Taken together, these poems—presented here in Rolfe Humphries’s faithful and witty translation—form a poetical masterpiece of enduring appeal, as well as a manual of dos and don’ts for lovers of all ages.

Reviews

"A service for which no public reward could be too great."  —W. H. Auden on Rolfe Humphries' translation of Virgil's Aeineid

Author Biography

Ovid (20 March 43 BCE–17 or 18 CE) is traditionally ranked alongside Virgil and Horace as one of the three canonic poets of Latin literature. His poetry, much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, decisively influenced European art and literature and remains as one of the most important sources of classical mythology. Rolfe Humphries (1894–1969) was a poet, translator, and teacher who was awarded the Academy of American Poets' Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His work appeared in Harper's and the New Yorker.