If ever you go - Katherine Tynan 'Sheep and lambs'

'Sheep and lambs', this charming poem always cheers me up because spring is my favourite time of year, and Easter is my favourite festival, and when I read this poem, or hear it being sung or recited, it brings to my mind a time of beauty, hope and renewal.

It also transports me back to a sunlit classroom, the day before I was to go home for my Easter holidays, when one of my teachers read this poem to the class. It was the first time I had ever heard it and so, for me, it will always be associated with thoughts of home, family and childhood Easters.

Sir Hugh Robertson, the Scottish composer and leading choral master, wrote the choral work ‘All in the April evening’ for mixed voice choir, using the words of Katharine Tynan.

Katharine Tynan (1859-1931), the daughter of a cattle farmer, was born in Clondalkin in 1859. She played a major part in Dublin literary circles until she married Henry Albert Hinkson and moved to England. She was a close associate of W.B. Yeats, corresponded with Francis Ledwidge and was a friend of the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. She lived in Claremorris, Co. Mayo, where her husband was a magistrate from 1914 until 1919.

She wrote over 100 novels, five autobiographical volumes and many poetry collections. Her collected poetry was published in 1930. She died in London in 1931.