I dunno, Bill - if you follow the link Maeve posted and read the post from Jim Dixon above, I think you'll find that the poem was an original composition by Eliza Sproat Turner (1826-1903). See also the updated entry from the Traditional Ballad Index, above, which cites information provided by Jim Dixon to this thread.


Reprints from Sing Out! (Volume 1 - the pink one) has these notes:

This song was copied from the diary of Mrs. Sara A. Price of Ottawa, Illinois. She had seven children and lost them all. Some of her sons were killed in the Civil War. Thus, this version can be dated about mid-Nineteenth Century. It sounds like a composed song, written in the United States, not Ireland; although the tradition is that of Irish topical ballads. It has been variously titled "Life Is a Toil" and "Housekeeper's Lament." It has been recorded by Walt Robertson for Folkways Records, and some half dozen words or so given here are from his version, rather than from Mrs. Price.

I see no reason to believe the Sing Out! attribution. I'm guessing that was a story that came from some folksinger's stage patter.....but maybe I'm wrong.

-Joe-