| |
| THE LITTLE son was dead | |
| Ere he was born, alas! | |
| Never upon his hapless head | |
| The saving water was. | |
| |
| In Crios-na-Lanna drear | 5 |
| They laid the precious clay | |
| That will not rise in any year | |
| Nor on the Judgment Day. | |
| |
| As she went to and fro, | |
| Her tears fell down like rain | 10 |
| For the small son she might not know, | |
| Whom she had borne in pain. | |
| |
| As she went out about, | |
| Her tears they burned like fire | |
| For the small wandering soul cast out | 15 |
| That was our Lord’s desire. | |
| |
| As she went to the well, | |
| Past Crios-na-Lanna dark, | |
| She heard the sheep and the sheep-bell | |
| And many a happy lark. | 20 |
| |
| O’er churchyard grave and moss | |
| The sheep cropped, well content; | |
| The little grave without a cross | |
| Cried to her as she went. | |
| |
| She never raised her eyes, | 25 |
| But drew the water clear. | |
| Is that a new-born babe that cries, | |
| Or straying lambkin near? | |
| |
| O is it lamb or child | |
| That leaves the churchyard sod? | 30 |
| A little lamb all undefiled | |
| And like the Lamb of God; | |
| |
| That seeks its mother mild | |
| With tender soft alarms; | |
| O is it lamb or is it child | 35 |
| That bleats within her arms? | |
| |
| O is it child or lamb | |
| That pushes at her breast? | |
| A lamb that sought its straying dam | |
| And has come home to rest. | 40 |
| |
| On Crios-na-Lanna’s rock | |
| The sheep browse safe from harms: | |
| One little lamb has left the flock | |
| And leaped into her arms. | |
| |
| By Crios-na-Lanna lone | 45 |
| At morning-tide and even, | |
| The hungry heart has found its own, | |
| The mother is in heaven. | |
| |
