O SHEPARD, out upon the snow, What lambs are newly born?. . . I see his long, long shadow go Across the fields of morn. Ere dawn the snow-light in the room Awoke me, and I saw A pallid earth, a cloudy gloom, A shape that stirred my awe. I know the clear untrodden snows That hide the Winter wheat; The greyer fields wherein he goes Are grey with pitting feet. He feels not how I watch him creep, He thinks he is alone; He searches for the heavy sheep Each windward hedge of stone. I keep my bed in weariness When workers have gone forth, I watch that silent man grow less Into the snow-packed North; And men have died in this old room Through thrice a hundred years Who saw the shepherd in the gloom, The shape that never nears. Briefly I watch; but then I go, The room will know me not; Yet from my window, o'er the snow, When I am well forgot Shall unknown men look forth to scan Each far, unchanging tree, And see a dark and lonely man Still creeping agelessly. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LIGHT'OOD FIRE by JOHN HENRY BONER THE SPARROW by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR HYSTERIA by THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT FOOTSTEPS OF ANGELS by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE RUBAIYAT, 1879 EDITION: 68 by OMAR KHAYYAM |