by Owen ap Owen

• The Boy's First Trip.
• -
• Boy and Uncle marching proud,
• Calling critters names aloud,
• Travelling o'er ground unploughed
• Through early morning's misty shroud.
• Another trip, already vowed!
• -
• Look there! Quickly! See?
• See the squirrel climb the tree?
• He hides his nuts from you and me.
• -
• A Cabbage White, that butterfly,
• Dipping low, then flapping high.
• He checks for food, that he might spy.
• -
• Watch the rabbit in his hole,
• Skirting round the tree trunk's bole,
• Looking deep within your soul?
• -
• Feathered grouse, hid underfoot
• Wingtip feathers black like soot.
• Eggs in nest, so nicely put.
• -
• Foxgloves standing in the dells
• With flowery spikes of purple bells
• Deadly poison, and death foretells.
• -
• Staghorn beetle's spiky nose,
• Grubbing round the dead thorn rose.
• Then taking up a fighting pose
• -
• Vixen in her covered den!
• Blood and feathers from a hen,
• 'Twas taken from the farmers pen.
• -
• Rufus Robin on the twig,
• Jumping down to earth to dig.
• He's finding worms, both fat and big
• -
• Watch the eagle way up there
• Smaller creatures all beware,
• And head home swiftly, for your lair
• -
• Boy and Uncle marching proud,
• Calling critters names aloud,
• Travelling o'er ground unploughed
• Through early morning's misty shroud.
• Another trip already vowed!

The story of a boy's first lessons in Knowledge Nature