My memory take me back long years to when i was young boy
To evenings in mid Summer in June and in July
The corncrake called in darkened mead the same notes o'er and o'er
But now in part of Ireland where i lived the corncrake heard no more.

In most of their old breeding grounds the corncrakes now don't breed
The earlier cutting of the grass stripped cover they did need
The silage harvester took it's toll their nests and eggs destroyed
And in green meadow near my home the voice of corncrake died

The corncrake's voice no longer heard in meads of Duhallow
And I've not heard their familiar calls for thirty years or so
The earlier cutting of the grass left the birds with nowhere
to hide
And the corncrakes have disappeared from my native countryside

On summer evenings long ago some hours after nightfall
In darkened meadows near my home the corncrakes did call
But the migrant rail no longer heard lost to posterity
And that voice i loved when i was young now just a memory

Francis Duggan

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-corncrake-heard-no-more/