The Former Rose Of Banteer Poem by Francis Duggan

Her eyes were as blue as the November sloes
The former Rose of Banteer was a beautiful Rose
And her shoulder length hair was as brown as the ripe chestnut of the Fall
In the Duhallow Village the fairest of all.

She left home, friends and family when she was nineteen
The last in the flesh that of her I have seen
I last saw her walking in Kanturk Town in the rain
Of her and her beauty the memories with me remain.

The wanderlust in her for Lands far away
Nowadays does she cover with brown dye her gray?
She must be in her mid to late sixties today
That would be her age or close to I would say.

Good memories of the past till death we retain
And in fancy I visit Duhallow again
Time seems to stand still when we go back in time
And Banteer's Rose of the fifties is still in her prime.

Perhaps now a grandmother and a charming old dear
She once was the beautiful Rose of Banteer
But time it will always be beauty's great foe
And going back the years that now seems long ago.