On Hearing A Goldfinch

On the power cable above the roadway I hear a goldfinch sing His song to many country people is a familiar thing A pretty bird to look at his song one often hear In the Spring and the Summer in the Southern Hemisphere His ancestors introduced from Britain from places far away But in South Eastern Australia often seen birds today Known by their lovely colours and their low toned twittering song To the true finches of Europe their pedigree belong As a school-going boy in Ireland in April and in May I often heard the goldfinches singing on evenings damp and gray And often in the grove by my old home I heard them at daybreak By their good looks and pleasant song them one could not mistake On the electrical cable above the road I hear a goldfinch sing On a mild day in October in the far southern Spring.