Editing Ovid (section)

===''Nux'' ("The Walnut Tree")===
This short poem in 91 elegiac couplets is related to [[Aesop's Fables|Aesop's fable]] of "[[The Walnut Tree]]" that was the subject of human ingratitude. In a monologue asking boys not pelt it with stones to get its fruit, the tree contrasts the formerly fruitful [[golden age]] with the present barren time, in which its fruit is violently ripped off and its branches broken. In the course of this, the tree compares itself to several mythological characters, praises the peace that the emperor provides and prays to be destroyed rather than suffer. The poem is considered spurious because it incorporates allusions to Ovid's works in an uncharacteristic way, although the piece is thought to be contemporary with Ovid.<ref>Knox, P. "Lost" in Knox, P. (2009) pp. 212–13</ref>