Black Sheep



"Black Sheep, Black Sheep,
Have you any wool?"
"That I have, my Master,
Three bags full."
  
One is for the mother who prays for me at night--
A gift of broken promises to count by candle-light.
  
One is for the tried friend who raised me when I fell--
A gift of weakling's tinsel oaths that strew the path to hell.
  
And one is for the true love--the heaviest of all--
That holds the pieces of a faith a careless hand let fall.
  
Black Sheep, Black Sheep,
Have you ought to say?
A word to each, my Master,
Ere I go my way.
  
A word unto my mother to bid her think o' me
Only as a little lad playing at her knee.
  
A word unto my tried friend to bid him see again
Two laughing lads in Springtime a-racing down the glen.
  
A word unto my true love--a single word--to pray
If one day I cross her path to turn her eyes away.
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 05, 2023

51 sec read
6

Quick analysis:

Scheme Abcb dd ee ff Agcg hh ii gg
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 808
Words 172
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 4, 2, 2, 2, 4, 2, 2, 2

Theodosia Garrison

also known as: Theodosia Pickering Garrison; Mrs. Frederic Faulks. Worked on the staff of Life Magazine; helped to organize the 250th Anniversary of the City of Newark, NJ (she was also born in Newark, NJ); resided in New Jersey. Was a houseguest of the famed poet E. Wilcox; made the Who's Who 1914 list. Information is difficult to collect on this poet. More will be posted at a later date. more…

All Theodosia Garrison poems | Theodosia Garrison Books

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