The Shepherd Left Behind

"The hour is late," the shepherds said,

   "And the miles are long to wind;
Do you stay here with the sheep, instead!"
   And they left the lad behind.
He heard their feet in the dark ravine,
   The drop of the sheepfold bars,
And then blue stillness flowed between
   The huddled sheep and stars.
He sat him down to wait for dawn,
    His crook across his knees,
And thought of the shepherds moving on
   Under the olive trees.
Herding his flocks in Palestine
   He thought, that lad of old,
How some must follow the Angel's sign
   And some must tend the fold.
And as he mused he took his pipe
   'Twas a shepherd's pipe he had
And there, while the frosty stars grew ripe
   And shone on the shepherd lad,
The first sweet Christmas carol twined
   From the willow's slender stem-
Blown by the shepherd left behind
   To a Babe in Bethlehem.

Mildred Plew Meigs 

picture is part of the painting "Procession of the Magi"
by Benozzo Gossoli
in the Capella dei Maggi

for a panoramic (but small) view http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/benozzo-gozzoli/procession-of-the-magi-1461