Claraghatlea The Place I Was Born In Poem by Francis Duggan

Claraghatlea the place i was born in and where i lived for many a day
Till the bug of the wander got in me for cities and towns far away
Where i spent the best years of my life and grew to a man from a boy
Where i had my first lessons in Nature and where i knew of sadness and joy

The years have left me looking older the passage of time on everyone does show
In Claraghatlea to many now i would be a stranger and few people there i would know
The faces change as they grow older but the old fields would look much the same
As they looked when i last did see them some of them had their own given name

In fancy in the grove by my old home the song of the robin i hear
The past may be in the distant forever but the memories of it to me near
Where i had my first lessons in Nature in the place i grew into a man
Our prime years they do pass so quickly and we quickly lose our youthful elan

Claraghatlea in view of Clara mountain where i spent my boyhood and prime
Today there to many i would be a stranger i have not been there for years of time
And though the past may be in the forever the good memories with us do remain
And often in my flights of fancy i walk in the old fields again.