The Humble Beggar (1802)/Amynta's Broken Vow

by Anonymous

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.