Text divider from 'The Humble Beggar', a chapbook printed in Glasgow in 1802
AMYNTA'S BROKEN VOW.
My sheep I neglected, I lost my sheephook, And all the gay haunts of my youth I forsook; No more for Amynta fresh garlands I wove, For ambition, I said, would soon cure me of love.
Chorus. O what had my youth with ambition to do? Why left I Amynta? why broke I'my vow? O give me my fheep, and my sheephook restore, I'll wander from love and Amynta no more.
Through regions remote in vain do I rove, And bid the wide ocean secure me from love: O fool! to imagine that ought can subdue A love so well founded, a passion so true. O, &c.
Alas I 'tis too late at thy fate to repine, Poor shepherd! Amynta no more can be thine: Thy tears are all fruitless, thy wishes are vain, The moments neglected return not again. O what had my youth with ambition to do? Why left I Amynta? Why broke I my vow? O give me my sheep, and my sheephook restore, I'll wander from love and Amynta no more.