The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II

Caught by the image of his beauteous face, He loves th' unbody'd form: a substance thinks The shadow:——
Pub. 1807, for the Author.
Translated by J. J. Howard.
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.
(Added by transcriber.)
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.