The Book of Scottish Song/Ah, the poor Shepherd

Ah, the poor Shepherd.

[This fine lyric is given in the first vol. of Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany without any signature, but it is the production of the accomplished poet, William Hamilton of Bangour, (born 1704; died 1754.) It was written to the tune of "Galashiels," and will be found with the music in the second volume of Johnson's Museum.]

Ah, the poor shepherd's mournful fate,
When doom'd to love and doom'd to languish,
To bear the scornful fair one's hate,
Nor dare disclose his anguish!
Yet eager looks and dying sighs
My secret soul discover,
While rapture, trembling through mine eyes,
Reveals how much I love her.
The tender glance, the reddening cheek,
O'erspread with rising blushes,
A thousand various ways they speak
A thousand various wishes.

For, oh! that form so heavenly fair,
Those languid eyes so sweetly smiling,
That artless blush and modest air
So fatally beguiling;
Thy every look, and every grace,
So charm, whene'er I view thee,
Till death o'ertake me in the chase
Still will my hopes pursue thee.
Then, when my tedious hours are past,
Be this last blessing given,
Low at thy feet to breathe my last,
And die in sight of heaven.

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