Photo by Alexander Meareworth at https://www.flickr.com/photos/thwaite/4255839993/

Dear Readers, I recently went to see ‘The Sheep Detectives‘, a film about some sheep who solve the murder of their shepherd (who just happens to be Hugh Jackman). It included the concept of ‘the winter lamb’, a lamb born in January or February and (according to the authority that is Sony Pictures), this lamb is often rejected by the rest of the flock. But what it reminded me of most was this tender poem by Philip Larkin, a city-dwelling curmudgeon if ever there was one, who still manages to convey a sense of delicate wonder in this poem. See what you think…

First Sight by Philip Larkin

Lambs that learn to walk in snow
When their bleating clouds the air
Meet a vast unwelcome, know
Nothing but a sunless glare.
Newly stumbling to and fro
All they find, outside the fold,
Is a wretched width of cold.

As they wait beside the ewe,
Her fleeces wetly caked, there lies
Hidden round them, waiting too,
Earth’s immeasureable surprise.
They could not grasp it if they knew,
What so soon will wake and grow
Utterly unlike the snow.