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C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

The Poet’s Fame

By Ovid (43 B.C.–18 A.D.)

Translation of Henry King

SO crown I here a work that dares defy

The wrath of Jove, the fire, the sword, the tooth

Of all-devouring Time! Come when it will

The day that ends my life’s uncertain term,—

That on this corporal frame alone hath power

To work extinction,—high above the Stars

My nobler part shall soar; my Name remain

Immortal; wheresoe’er the might of Rome

O’erawes the subject Earth, my Verse survive

Familiar in the mouths of men! and if

A bard may prophesy, while time shall last

Endure, and die but with the dying world!