poetry, for instance concerning his imprisonment by
Brian Ó Briain, and, though an amateur, who had been
a student of Gofraidh Finn Ó Dálaigh, he became even
more famous than his teacher.
Finally, we have the end of this era, and those poets
who, while continuing the poetry of praise, also pro-
duced poetry of lament. In the 1600s came the col-
lapse of the Gaelic aristocracy, and of the fili. We have
Laoiseach Mac an Bhaird (fl. late 1500s), Ferghal
Mhac an Bhaird (fl. late 1500s), Fear Flatha Ó Gnímh
(fl. late 1500s), and Eochaidh Ó hEoghusa (fl.c.1600),
and in the end, we have the verse contest known as
theIomarbháigh na bhfileadh (“Contention of the
Bards,”) (early 1600s), but it is the sad act of a “a dog
fighting over an empty dish.”
There was a new era dawning, using amhránmeters,
for a different audience, and complained of by such as
Eochaidh Ó hEoghusa. It is perhaps attested to as early
as the 1300s, and growing in importance from the
1500s on, but this goes beyond the limits of this entry.
MICHAEL TERRY
References and Further Reading
Bergin, Osborn. Irish Bardic Poetry.Dublin: Institute for
Advanced Studies, 1970.
Carney, James. The Irish Bardic Poet. Dublin: Dolmen Press,
1967.
Greene, David H. An Anthology of Irish Literature, Vol. I. New
York: New York University Press, 1971 (c1954).
Kinsella, Thomas, ed. The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse.
Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Knott, Eleanor. Irish Classical Poetry. Cork: Published for the
Cultural Relations Committee of Ireland by Mercier Press,
1966, 1973 printing.
Murphy, Gerard. The Ossianic Lore and Romantic Tales of
Medieval Ireland. Cork: Published for the Cultural Relations
Committee by Mercier Press, 1971.
O’Connor, Frank. A Short History of Irish Literature. Putnam,
1967.
Welch, Robert, ed. The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature.
Oxford: Clarendon Press and New York: Oxford University
Press, 1996.
Williams, J.E. Caerwyn. The Court Poet in Medieval Ireland.
London: Oxford University Press, 1972.
Williams, J.E. Caerwyn, and Ford, Patrick K. The Irish Literary
Tradition.Cardiff: University of Wales Press, and Belmont,
Massachusetts: Ford & Bailie, 1992.
POETS/MEN OF LEARNING
Poets constitute the most important and prolific liter-
ary group of Medieval Ireland. Poets were highly
trained professionals of high status and social emi-
nence. An early Irish text lists the three broad types
of poetry expected of a poet as white, black, and
speckled. The text expounds the classification, white
representing praise poetry, such as eulogies, black
representing satire, and speckled representing poetry
concerning legal issues. As shown by the surviving
literature, however, Ireland’s medieval poets were not
limited to these three types. Poetic compositions
included elegies, legal formulae, ancestral tables, his-
torical recitation, prophetic visions, grammatical
tracts, religious verse, and so forth. A poet was much
more than simply a composer of verse; he was among
other things an historian, a man of letters, a public
official, a legal expert, a satirist, and a genealogist.
Poets composed in both Irish and Latin. Interestingly,
many poems of the medieval period written in Latin,
while resembling more closely Latin style and com-
position, contain manifold examples of idiomatic
Irish. While names and dates of individual authors are
relatively rare in the early medieval period, the poems
of a few well-known poets survive, including Colmán,
Dallán, Niníne, and Senchán. More is known about
the lives and reputations of the later poets, particularly
Bardic poets, as authorship is usually given.
Attesting to their preeminent status, poets were the
only professionals who retained personal rights and
privileges of custom beyond the confines of their ter-
ritory. Poets traveled freely between borders, even in
times of conflict. The auspices for such travel usually
included praise poetry for a distant king or lord, or to
demand a cross-border claim. Poets were paid highly
for their compositions. Compensation for poems usu-
ally consisted of a payment or tribute, comprised of
various forms including cattle, horses, jewellery, weap-
onry, and the like. Payment was demanded by the poet
himself, a fee determined by his grade or rank, the
difficulty of composition, and in all likelihood, the
relative wealth of the patron. The threat of satire upon
non-payment for a poem seems to have guaranteed
prompt payment in full. Satire was a heavy blow to
the rank and status of its victim. Short satirical poems
survive, sometimes including a patron’s name or fam-
ily, publicizing paltry and ungenerous payments.
Early traditional accounts specify seven distinct
grades of poet, modeled on the seven ecclesiastical
grades within the church. The highest grade, that of
theollamor “master poet,” was attainable only through
bloodline, that is if the poet’s own father and grandfa-
ther were also poets. The remaining six grades were
hierarchical, demanding longer study and knowledge
of proportionately more verse compositions per grade.
Poets studied and trained in schools down to the sev-
enteenth century. Standard instruction for a poet lasted
seven years, dominated by the study of countless com-
positional forms, each consisting of different metrical
and rhyme schemes. Poetic composition was bound by
strict rules of form and content.
The term bard has come to denote any Celtic poet.
While the terms poet and bard are often synonymous
in modern contexts, an exact and important medievalPOETRY, IRISH