The poem
BY Allan stream I chanc’d to rove, While Phoebus sank beyond Benledi; The winds are whispering thro’ the grove, The yellow corn was waving ready: I listen’d to a lover’s sang, An’ thought on youthfu’ pleasures mony; And aye the wild-wood echoes rang— “O, dearly do I love thee, Annie!
“O, happy be the woodbine bower, Nae nightly bogle make it eerie; Nor ever sorrow stain the hour, The place and time I met my Dearie! Her head upon my throbbing breast, She, sinking, said, ‘I’m thine for ever!’ While mony a kiss the seal imprest— The sacred vow we ne’er should sever.”
The haunt o’ Spring’s the primrose-brae, The Summer joys the flocks to follow; How cheery thro’ her short’ning day, Is Autumn in her weeds o’ yellow; But can they melt the glowing heart, Or chain the soul in speechless pleasure? Or thro’ each nerve the rapture dart, Like meeting her, our bosom’s treasure?