The silent mistress finds herself being fashioned to whatever her lover pleases as she stands before him. Once stripped down to his pleasing, her appearance is celebrated, and she has fallen victim to his male-gaze. The male gaze, which refers to the lens that men view the world and women, is also seen in Ovid's Amores 3.2, but unlike Donne, the audience also gets insight into the female's response to his gaze, as well. In this poem, Ovid is at the circus watching the horse races, sitting next to a girl that becomes the fixation of his physical desires. .
Ovid begins the poem with the confession, "You watch the races, I watch you" (line 7). Here, we see the speaker's gaze first engaging with the physical sight of his desires, and her unknowingly becoming the object of his gaze. He continues to admire and elaborate on her beauty, saying "Just like the legs of Diana, her dress tucked-up/chasing the wild beasts, wilder still herself/I blazed when I couldn't see them: what shall I do now?/you add fire to the fire, water to the sea" (Amores 3.2.34-38). Though he is not making conversation with her, the audience gets a sense of reciprocity from the woman's end, as she "adds fire to the fire, water to the sea" (Amores, 38). Ovid also begs the Gods to let this woman "agree to be loved!" (Amores, 52). Unlike Donne, who commanded his woman undress, Ovid shows desire for consent before furthering his advancements toward her. Ovid concludes the poem by telling the audience that he received a smile from the woman of his admiration. Though she is virtually as silent as the woman in Donne's "Elegy 19: On His Mistress Going to Bed", her small physical reaction of a grin shows Ovid's mindfulness of her reciprocity, in contrast to Donne's conclusion, which focuses solely on his own feelings as he exclaims, "How blest am I to discover thee!" (Elegy 19: On His Mistress Going to Bed, line 30).