‘Twill soon be spring in Ireland
    Though I shall not be there
To hear the corncrakes loudly
And cuckoos just as proudly
    Their pretty names declare.
Where neighbours say “God save you”
   These spring  birds seem to say,
“God save you kindly, neighbours
And bless you at your labours
    And cheer you at your play.

I’ve been so long from Ireland
    I fear when I return
I’ll seek in vain the faces
Of old friends in old places
    And I’ll be left to mourn.
And I fear I’ll be forgotten
    And I fear there will be few
Old voices to remind me
Of youth left far behind me
    Save the corncrake and cuckoo.
 
MICHAEL MULLIN, ‘THE BARD OF FOREMASS,
Foremass Lower, Sixmilecross. Co. Tyrone.