Ah, to be young again, down at the ole' pasture, shepherding those lambs by the stream in advance of shearing season…OK, so it may not be so easy for us modern folk to identify with the speaker's pastoral childhood in a pre-industrial society. Nonetheless, it's clear that the voice of the poem is a youthful one, full of optimism and still a stranger to despair and defeat. In a way, the lamb and the speaker are really in the same boat; just a couple of kids, you know, except for that species thing.