{
 "id": "maria-lowell/the-alpine-sheep",
 "title": "The Alpine Sheep",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "Addressed to a Friend, After the Loss of a Child",
 "poet": "Maria Lowell",
 "poet_slug": "maria-lowell",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Poems of Maria Lowell",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 2,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1907,
  "venue": "The Poems of Maria Lowell (1907)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofmarialowe00lowerich"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/maria-lowell_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://search.lib.virginia.edu/sources/uva_library/items/uva-lib:439721",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofmarialowe00lowerich"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 48,
  "n_stanzas": 12,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When on my ear your loss was knelled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And tender sympathy upburst,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A little spring from memory welled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which once had quenched my bitter thirst.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And I was fain to bear to you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A portion of its mild relief,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That it might be as healing dew,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To steal some fever from your grief.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "After our child’s untroubled breath",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up to the Father took its way,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And on our home the shade of Death",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a long twilight haunting lay,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And friends came round, with us to weep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her little spirit’s swift remove,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The story of the Alpine sheep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was told to us by one we love.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They, in the valley’s sheltering care,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Soon crop the meadow’s tender prime,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And when the sod grows brown and bare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The shepherd strives to make them climb",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To airy shelves of pasture green,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That hang along the mountain’s side,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where grass and flowers together lean,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And down through mist the sunbeams slide:",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But nought can tempt the timid things",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The steep and rugged path to try,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though sweet the shepherd calls and sings,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And seared below the pastures lie,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Till in his arms their lambs he takes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Along the dizzy verge to go,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then, heedless of the rifts and breaks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They follow on, o’er rock and snow.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And in those pastures, lifted fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More dewy-soft than lowland mead,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The shepherd drops his tender care,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sheep and lambs together feed.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "This parable, by Nature breathed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blew on me as the South-wind free",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er frozen brooks, that flow unsheathed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From icy thraldom, to the sea.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A blissful vision, through the night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would all my happy senses sway,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the good Shepherd on the height,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or climbing up the starry way,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Holding our little lamb asleep⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While, like the murmur of the sea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sounded that voice along the deep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Saying, “Arise and follow me!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}