Joyce decreed he was "the most distinguished poet of the Celtic world and one of the most inspired poets of any country ever to make use of the lyric form." Mis gravestone proclaims him to be "Ireland's National Poet." His poetry draws on an extraordinary range of sources, including exotic languages and legends, and includes "translations" for which there were no originals. Propelled frequently by hypnotic rhythms, enlightened by verbal play and ingenuity, from couplets to long poems, Mangan's verse gives voice to the starkness of his own predicament and, in a poem like 'Siberia, ' fuses a desolate interior with the great concern of Famine Ireland.
James Clarence Mongan
