My Sheep I Neglected
by GILBERT ELLIOT (1722-1777)
My sheep I neglected, I lost my sheep-hook,
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.
Oh, why had my youth with ambition to do?
Why left I Amynta? why broke I my vow?
Oh, give me my sheep and my sheep hook restore,
And 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.
Oh fool! to imagine that aught could subdue
A love so well founded a passion so true!
Alas! ’tis too late at thy fate to repine;
Poor shepherd! Amynta can never be thine.
Thy tears are all fruitless thy wishes are vain,
The moments neglected return not again.
Gilbert Elliot Contemporaries
Thomas Gray
William Cowper
Sir John Carr
John Cunningham
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