The Poets Flocks. 247 



as a virtuous people whose lives are sadly oppressed Their 

 perpetual nervousness, one of the most absurd phenomena 

 of animal life, is excused on the ground that the events that 

 cause the alarm are arbitrary and brutaL Some tyrant or 

 another, a dog that barks, or man with a gun, rudely disturbs 

 the happy calm of the gentle sheep. So all persecuted 

 sects, communities, or persons are called '-'flocks'' and 

 " sheep," although, says Herbert, " to a short-shorn sheep 

 God gives wind by measure." 



So it becomes the symbol of home-life, and its peace. 

 In the pet-lamb, Bums' lamented "hoggie," this idea, as in 

 Mary Howitfs very charming poem, reaches its extreme 

 expression, but the flocks in general convey the same sig- 

 nificance in a hundred difierent ways. Their mere presence 

 suffices to tranquillise the scene, and, like some other sounds 

 in Nature, their voices emphasise the rural silence. 



" For sheep-bells chiming from a wold, 

 Or bleat of lamb wichin its fold. 

 Or cooing of love-legends old 



To dove-wives makes not quiet less ; 

 Ecstatic chirp of winged things. 

 Or bubbling of the water spring, 

 Are sounds that more than silence bring 



Itself and its delightsomeness." — Jean Ingelow. 



Wordsworth hears, in the bleat of the lamb on the hill, " the 

 plaintive spirit of the solitude." Thomson is very fond of 

 "the bleating mountains,"^ the "distant bleatings of the 

 hills," as an emblem of repose. The absence of sheep 

 from the landscape (as in Grahame) reminds the wanderer 

 in other lands of the happy tranquilUty of "home." He 

 longs, with Faber, to hear 



" The bleating tribes. 

 The nomads of the moorland, which send down 

 A plaintive greeting from the windy heights." 



^ So too we have with the herds " lowing vales." 



