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Title: The Two Hours' Task!
Author: John Castillo [
More Titles by Castillo]
(A congratulatory Address to the Lambs, on their appearance in
Spring.)
Welcome, little peaceful strangers,
To your fields and pastures green,
Fearless of surrounding dangers,
Since no dangers you have seen.
While the sun is on you beaming,
That you may new strength receive,
Sweet new milk is for you streaming,
That you may partake and live.
Spring, with all her charms, invites you,
Now to taste the tender blade;
Birds are singing to delight you,
Whether in the sun or shade.
Nature has with gladness crown’d you,
Woodlands echo at your birth,
Spreads a flowery carpet round you,
Bids you walk in freedom forth.
But beware of your destroyer,
Crafty Reynard stalks the plains,
To your shepherd cleave then closer,
Or he’ll drain your little veins.
In your merry evening gambols,
Of surrounding foes beware,
Also in your distant rambles,
See you wander not too far.
Fell destruction round you hovers,
Therefore caution don’t despise,
Croaking ravens wait in numbers,
To pick out your little eyes.
Go not forth without your shepherd,
Be not lifted up with pride,
For if peaceful you would slumber,
You must never leave his side.
Till your strength is perfected,
Keep within your master’s ground,
You shall never be neglected,
If you thus are faithful found.
See yon lamb that now is bleating,
Him misfortune calls its own;
And mark’d out an early victim,
From the flock he strays alone.
See the little lonely mourner,
Like a bull-rush hangs his head,
Seeks a solitary corner,
And refuses to be fed.
Life to him appears a burden,
This his wailings testify,
Earth no pleasures can afford him,
He will shortly droop and die.
Ere he drink the crystal fountain,
Ere he dance the flowery plain,
Ere he bleat on yonder mountain,
He returns to earth again.
Emblem of that happy infant
Which was born the other day,
But before it knew bereavement,
From the earth was call’d away.
Call’d to more delightful regions,
Ere he learn’d his mother tongue,
There to speak a purer language,
There to sing a sweeter song.
On his Lord to wait attendant,
And to sing redeeming love,
Seated on a throne resplendent,
In a brighter world above.
Cheerful lambs around us caper,
Woodland songsters hail the morn;
But frail man is doom’d to labour,
Weep, and sweat, and sigh, and mourn.
Yet there is a higher station,
Man is born for nobler joys,
If he seeks and finds salvation,
He shall sing above the skies.
Though he be a fallen creature,
Subject here to droop and die,
The “Lamb of God” can change his nature,
And take all his sins away!
[The end]
John Castillo's poem: Two Hours' Task!
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