Sheep and Lambs by Katharine Tynan: The Easter Poem Hiding in a Spring Scene

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I am always surprised how few female poets appear on the top 100 Irish poems list. But this week, I picked number 76 from the top 100 Irish poems list. This poem is by Katharine Tynan Hinkson. I felt it was appropriate as we head out of March and into April.

Last week was the first day of Spring, and the poem Sheep and Lambs is about a lady in rural Ireland observing the Sheep and lamb on a spring day. It looks like a simple spring poem, but there is a lot more to it, as you’ll see below. 

Who was Katharine Hinkson? 

Katharine Hinkson, or Hinkson-Tynan, was born at Whitehall dairy farm, Clondalkin, County Dublin. She was one of 12 children of Andrew Cullen Tynan and Elizabeth Reilly Tynan. It was our good friend W.B Yeats who had regular chats with her after meeting her in June 1885, in connection with C. H. Oldham’s Dublin University Review. Yeats described her as ‘very plain’ though always affectionate towards her. 

And she certainly was a busy woman; she wrote 100 novels, 12 collections of short stories, three plays, and anthologies, and innumerable articles on social questions such as poor children and women’s working conditions. Plus a whole lot more which I won’t go into here. 

Now let’s get to this short, great Irish poem. 

Sheep and Lambs By Katharine Tynan Hinkson

All in the April morning,
April airs were abroad;
The sheep with their little lambs
Pass’d me by on the road.

The sheep with their little lambs
Pass’d me by on the road;
All in an April evening
I thought on the Lamb of God.

The lambs were weary, and crying
With a weak human cry,
I thought on the Lamb of God
Going meekly to die.

Up in the blue, blue mountains
Dewy pastures are sweet:
Rest for the little bodies,
Rest for the little feet.

But for the Lamb of God
Up on the hill-top green,
Only a cross of shame
Two stark crosses between.

All in the April evening,
April airs were abroad;
I saw the sheep with their lambs,
And thought on the Lamb of God.

What did you think of this poem? 

Comment below and let others know. Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to register here to get your free weekly dose of Irish straight to your inbox. 

Sheep and Lambs: meaning and analysis

Katharine Tynan (1859 to 1931) was one of the busiest writers of the Irish literary revival and a friend of Yeats. “Sheep and Lambs” is her best-known poem, and it’s often sung as a choral piece under the title “All in the April Evening”, in a setting by the Scottish composer Hugh Roberton.

What it means

On the surface, a woman watches ewes and their lambs pass her on a country road one April evening. But the lambs make her think of Christ, the Lamb of God, at Easter. The tired lambs’ “weak human cry” reminds her of Jesus “going meekly to die”.

The lambs will rest in sweet, dewy mountain pastures. The Lamb of God gets no such rest: only “a cross of shame” on a green hill, between two others. So there is a profound meaning after all. It’s a crucifixion poem hidden inside a spring scene.

Form

Six short, ballad-like quatrains with simple rhymes. The opening lines come back at the end, so the poem closes where it began, on the road in the April evening.

Key themes

• Easter and sacrifice: innocence and suffering.
• Nature and faith: an everyday Irish scene opens up a religious meaning.
• Tenderness: for the lambs and for Christ alike.

More Irish poems

• The Ballad of Father Gilligan by W.B. Yeats
• I See His Blood Upon the Rose by Joseph Mary Plunkett
• The best Irish poets
• Ireland’s top 100 Irish poems

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