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.