My parents knew these people who for all their faults were very nice   They owned a farm whose old world charm earned it the name of Paradise   We came to stay one holiyda, we played crocquet and burned our arms   But I was charmed and lost for words when I first heard the birds of paradise farm      Singing their songs all the day long   Making love to the dinner gong   Wondering when their human friends   Would come to feed them      I looked in the trees and in the air I searched the eves of disused barns   Till finally, to my despair, I found the caged birds of paradise farm      Singing their songs all the day long   Making love to the dinner gong   Wondering why their tiny lives   should be spent behind iron bars      Now Leonardo da Vinci, St Francis of Assisi;   But Neil Hannon of the Seahouse, Fivemiletown...   It doesn't sound quite right, somehow...      Singing their songs all the day long   Making love to the dinner gong   Wondering when their human friend   Would come to free them      When the last day came I took my time   they called my name and read the card   "When Nature Calls You Must Reply"   They laughed waving goodbye to paradise farm.