In the Country

A hedge of trees is all around;
    The blackbird’s praise I shall not hide;
Above my book so smoothly lined
    The birds are singing far and wide.

In a green cloak of bushy boughs
    The cuckoo pipes his melodies—
Be good to me, God, on Judgment Day!—
    How well I write beneath the trees!

Source: Frank O'Connor; The Little Monasteries; Dublin; Dolmen
Press; 1963, 1976 (1976 ed.); p.11