Callanan Poem by Francis Duggan

He sang of Gougaune Barra and the outlaw of Lough Lene
And the convict of Cluain Meala and Ireland's joy and pain
And sweeter music never flowed from any wild bird's throat
Than from the pen of Callanan that famous Cork born poet.

He translated the best songs of the old Gaelic tongue
Songs that even sounded sweeter when in the English language
sung
And as well as a poetical translator perhaps Ireland's best
in memory
He too had in him the genius of originality.

And though his poems won for him fame they did not bring him
wealth
And worse for him he did not have the very best of health
And he died in his thirty fourth year in eighteen twenty nine
In Portugal where he had gone for health mending sun shine.

The poems and the translations of this gifted Prince of Rhyme
Have stood the greatest test of all the mighty test of time
In the field of Anglo Irish verse his is a house hold name
And his genius still glows brightly like an everlasting flame.


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