In Mangan's Time

Times were tough in Mangan's time
And many did not live beyond their prime
At forty people looked frail and old
The hard life on them at a young age told

Ireland in the famine years
Was the Land of death and tears
People of hunger in their thousands died
In villages, towns and countryside.

One of Ireland's great poetic men
James Clarence Mangan he lived then
In eighteen forty nine at forty six he passed away
His poems are still read today.

Only the tough times he had seen
The one who penned 'Dark Rosaleen'
Childless and unmarried he lived it hard
He became Ireland's National Bard.

The one who penned 'O Hussey's Ode To The Maguire'
Generations of young Irish poets he did inspire
He never wrote a slipshod line
The poet who died in eighteen forty nine.