A Pastoral Tragedy

From The Birmingham Age-Herald, January 4, 1913.
 

 The passionate shepherd
     His lot doth lament;
 Sweet Phyllida left him—
     One morning she went.
 
 Some say ’twas an actor
     Who led her astray,
 And some say a chauffeur
     Upon the “White Way.”
 
 Alone on the hillside
     The desolate swain
 Sheds tears of deep sorrow
     That shower like rain.
 
 His pipe is neglected,
     He singeth no more,
 His flock is a-straying
     The wide country o’er.
 
 She spoke of his manners
     As boorish and rude,
 When she would a lover
     With polish endued.
 
 Then shortly she left him,
     The hard-hearted girl;
 Grown tired of day-dreaming,
     She longed for a whirl.
 
 A Shepard, she knew it,
     Saw little of life;
 She’d be in the swim as
     An actor-man’s wife.
 
 Or was it a chauffeur?
     We really can’t say,
 But sad is the shepherd
     Since she went away.