That Poor Poet Of Dublin

That poor poet of Dublin who died long ago
Perhaps Ireland's greatest writer though not many say so
He remains in the shadows of Joyce and Beckett and Heaney and Yeats
Just to mention a few of Ireland's literary greats

A poet whose story is seldom told
He died in eighteen forty nine at forty six years old
When he was one can say in his literary prime
Though some of his poems they have lived on in time

Perhaps one reason for the neglect of his legacy as a poet may be
That he was one who lived and died in dire poverty
In the famine years in Ireland when so many dreams were destroyed
When so many poor people of consumption and malnutrition died

Some of his famous poems such as Dark Rosaleen, A Vision Of Connaught and O Hussey's Ode to Maguire
Remain of the highest order and poems to inspire
And his Woman of Three Cows, The Nameless One and Twenty Golden Years Ago
Are poems that time of has not become the foe

A poet Irish people of ought to feel proud
But in the Ireland of today so few sing his praises loud
He wrote poems for the love of it not for wealth and fame
That poor poet of Dublin James Clarence Mangan was his name.