The Shepherdess calls the sheep!
Where have they gone astray,
The long and cloudy day?
Around the big earth-ball,
Thrills the clear, gentle call,—
The Shepherdess seeking the sheep.
The lambs are cold and numb,
The wolves have wasted the fold,
(In sheep-skin as of old)
And not since Galilee,
From blue Tiberian sea,
Has such a summons come!
Oh, tender as the wind of May
That woos the buds to bloom,
And stirs their dear perfume;
As strong as Sun's demand
That clouds forsake the land,
She calls them, night and day!
