Songs (Brechin 1834)/Bruce's lines

BRUCE'S LINES.

---

THE following verses were composed in early life by the late Rev. Mr. Bruce of Brechin, on a circumstance connected with his own personal history. Though never in print before they are well known to many old people in the destrict by the name prefixed to this n(illegible text)—Bruce’s Lines.

---

As I went out one evening to meet with my dear,
The blue sky was bright,and the full moon shone clear;
Not long had I waited by the river’s green side.
When coming to meet me my Annie I spy’d.

How happy that moment—how happy was I—
The wealth of the world such bliss could not buy,
Its wealth and its honors were nothing to me,
When with my dear Annie by the lone green-wood-tree.

“O Annie! dear Annie! I must leave you a while-
I go on a journey of many a long miles
I go to the Highlands some time to remain,
But I know you’ll be constant till I come again.”-

I went to the Highlands some time to remain,
But ah! she was married e’er I came again-
Another more wraithy had offer’d his hand,
And I was forsaken for houses and land,

O all ye young men take warning by me,
Beware of the briers of the bonny rose-tree.
In July it will blossom and in August decay.
But the thorns remain when the leaves fall away!

But now I’ve resolved a shepherd to be
And my flock shall of all things be dearest to me,
I'll feed it, and lead it, in weal and in woe,
Where the green pastures grew, and the still waters flow