Ammon Wrigley - "An Old Shepherd"
The following is a transcription of a work by Saddleworth poet Ammon Wrigley (1861-1946).
An Old Shepherd
- In the ingle nook to-night,
- Shepherd, though thy hair is white,
- Though the years have done thee wrong,
- Thou art seeming hale and strong.
- As the oak tree in the clough,
- Thou art rugged, gnarled, and tough.
- Clear and plainly I can scan
- What has built thee up a man:
- All the wild grouse moors can give
- To the men that on them live.
- In thy honest weathered face
- I can see the mountain race:
- Strong of chin and blue of eye,
- Broad of back and long of thigh,
- That through ages on this steep
- Watched their little moorland sheep.
- Out of thee there seems to blow
- The good life that few men know.
- Clean and sweet about thee lies
- The rolling moors and open skies.
- Sea-grey mist on far-off peak,
- Sheep track over knowe top bleak.
- Worn old cart road, grass, and rut,
- Fold and barn and shepherd’s hut.
- Nesting grouse among the ling,
- Brown splashed egg and speckled wing.
- Many chunks of bread and cheese
- Thou hast eaten from thy knees.
- With the cool, fresh noonday air
- Blowing o’er thy frugal fare.
- Thou hast carried many loads
- Up the windy mountain roads,
- With thy old green shepherd’s coat
- Buttoned close up to thy throat.
- Many short cuts thou hast ta’en
- Striding homewards in the rain,
- Over fields and through the gaps,
- Swinging wide thy great coat laps.
- Many streams thy feet have crossed
- When the sheep were strayed and lost.
- Many young dogs prone to wheel
- Thou hast whistled to thy heel.
- Many winds have round thee howled
- Through the draughty gullies cold,
- With thy face against the sleet
- And thy shoon in sodden peat.
- Many neighbours thou hast known
- At the farms and homesteads lone,
- Who helped thee in many ways
- In lambing time and shearing days.
- And made with sods and oaken beams
- “Washing holes” in mountain streams.
- There is no glory earth can show
- Thou hast not seen or does not know.
- All the witchery morning flings
- Through the dreams of waking things.
- All the mystery evening spills
- O’er the dim and lonely hills.
- Light and shadow, bird and song,
- Go with thee the whole day long.
- What a wonder-life is thine,
- Worth a thousand years of mine.
- Work thou hast in field and fold,
- But thou’rt paid with Heaven’s gold.
- The night is coming to an end,
- Put thy hand in mine, old friend;
- Let me feel the grip “agen”
- Of one who is the best of men.
- Clean and homely, loving right;
- Good night to thee, again, good night.