What is the central idea of the poem "The Ballad Of Father Gilligan"?Please describe the central idea in 150 to 200 words.

I think this excellent poem presents us with a priest who
is at the end of his tether and absolutely exhausted. It appears that the cause of his
intense spritual and physical weariness is the fact
that:

For half
his flock were in their beds

Or under green sods
lay.

The way in which so many
of his flock have died recently or are sick causes him great oppression, and his sadness
and feelings of intense desolation are expressed when his "body" speaks and not "his
soul" when he says:

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"I have no rest, nor joy, nor
peace,

For people die and
die..."

In exhaustion, Father
Gilligan falls asleep and receives rest, but awakes only to find that another one of his
flock has died in the interim. He rushes off to the house, and is overwhelmed by grief
and sadness once again, thinking that he has betrayed his duty in letting one of his
flock die without him. However, as the man's wife relates how the man died "as merry as
a bird," Father Gilligan recognises how God has taken pity on him and has helped this
man to die whilst Father Gilligan was having a well-needed rest. Note the last stanza of
the poem that seems to summarise the central theme:

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"He Who is wrapped in purple
robes,

With planets in His
care,

Had pity on the least of
things,

Asleep upon a
chair."

God's provision for
all of his creatures and how he understands and hears our heart's cry seems to be the
main theme. Father Gilligan is made to understand that he is not supposed to take the
worries of the world on his shoulders alone. God is there to help
him.