Now springhas clad the grove in green,
And strew’d the leawi’ flowers;
The furrow’d, waving corn is seen
Rejoice in fostering showers.
While ilka thing in nature join
Their sorrows to forego,
O why thus all alone are mine
The weary steps o’ woe!
The trout in yonder wimpling burn
That glides, a silver dart,
And, safe beneath the shady thorn,
Defies the angler’s art-
My life was ancethat careless stream,
That wanton trout was I;
ButLove, wi’unrelenting beam,
Has scorch’d my fountains dry.
That little floweret’s peaceful lot,
In yonder cliff that grows,
Which, save the linnet’s flight, I wot,
Nae ruder visit knows,
Was mine, tillLove has o’er me past,
And blighted a’my bloom;
And now, beneath the withering blast,
My youth and joy consume.
The waken’d lav’rock warbling springs,
And climbs the early sky,
Winnowing blythe his dewy wings
In morning’s rosy eye;
As little reck’d I sorrow’s power,
Until the flowery snare
O’witching Love, in luckless hour,
Made me the thrall o’care.
O had my fate been Greenland snows,
OrAfric’s burning zone,
Wi’man and nature leagued my foes,
So Peggy ne’er I’d known!
The wretch whose doom is “Hope nae mair”
What tongue his woes can tell;
Within whasebosom, save Despair,
Naekinder spirits dwell.