One Of Ireland's Great Poets

His mum and dad in him did raise a good son

Francis Ledwidge who died in World War One

Far from his home in Slane under a foreign sky

As The Poet Of The Blackbird he was known by

A victim of war in his physical prime

In the early twentieth century for humanity a tragic time

In the heat of battle in Ypres he fell

Of war never many good stories to tell

One whose name lives as one worthy of note

The Bard of Slane was a marvellous poet

In his poetic prime he died quite young

With perhaps his greatest poems unwritten to be sung

A sad day for Ireland Lord Dunsany did say

When he heard Ledwidge had died in a war far away

With words he was one who did love to play

And his originality lives in his published poems today

News of his death left his family and friends in tears

Francis Ledwidge has been dead for more than a century of years

To lovers opf poetry his poems he did bequeath

One of Ireland's great poets from Slane in County Meath.