The Neglect Of Mangan

The National bard of his country yet he never was that well known
But amongst the great writers of Ireland he is in a class of his own
For as long as the fields and the meadows of his old beloved country are green
We will have the poems of Mangan the author of 'Dark Rosaleen'.

He lived when famine ravaged Ireland and he was neglected and poor
And he died in his forty sixth year of consumption for his illness then there wasn't a cure
In his lifetime his poems never published out of Ireland though he was a poetic great
In a Poet named James Clarence Mangan the poor have one to celebrate.

A self thought man who could speak many languages the great bards of Europe to English he did translate
And one can truly say of Mangan that fame came to him all too late
He was an extraordinary person though neglect was only his lot
The poems of Mangan are legendary though their author is all but forgot.

When people ask me who was Ireland's greatest writer to reply I do not hesitate
I answer of course the Poet Mangan the one the critics under rate
The National bard of his country yet the neglected prince of poetry
And for his neglect one good reason is he lived and died in poverty.