I Was Raised In The Home

I was raised in the home to badger and gray crow
Where dark brown water bird dipper with breast white as snow
Sings in the stream that flows to the river down the field by the hill
With babbling tongue that is never still

The light of day for the first time i saw
In the home to the raven and rook and jackdaw
Where in the flat riverside fields often wet from flood overflow
The rushes quite rank in clusters do grow

I grew to love Nature when i was a boy
And learning of her ways today i enjoy
Where i first got to know many birds by their song
Some of them once heard one could never again get wrong

I was raised in the home to the shy mountain hare
Though not often seen their kind were not rare
And only the memories with me do remain
Of a past i can only visit in fancy again.