Irish syllabic poetry, also known in its later form as Dán díreach (1200-1600), is the name given to complex syllabic poetry in the Irish language as written by monastic poets from the eighth century on, and later by professional poets in Ireland and Gaelic Scotland.
The monastic poets borrowed from both native and Latin traditions to create elaborate syllabic verse forms, and used them for religious and nature poetry. The concerns of the highly trained professional poets were mostly secular. They regarded themselves and were regarded by others as an integral part of the social and intellectual elite of medieval Ireland, a fact expressed through a subtle and cultivated poetic diction. The form and function of this poetry cannot be separated, therefore, from a particular social and cultural context.
History
Early monastic era
The seven or eight syllable line typical of formal Irish verse is derived from an ancient Indo-European metrical tradition. The Irish combination of end-rhyme, internal rhyme and alliteration, however, derives ultimately from the example of late Latin hymns, as elaborated by Irish monks. Such rhyme first appears in Latin hymns of the third and fourth centuries. Its use was taught by the late Classical writer Virgilius Marus Grammaticus, whose writings were well known in Ireland, and rhyme is found in some of the earliest Irish Latin hymns. Irish monks used rhyme in Latin in a more elaborate way than on the continent, an example being a hymn to Saint Martin by Oengus mac Tipraiti (d. 745):
Martinus mirus more
ore laudavit Deum: pure corde cantavit atque laudavit eum.
(Martin, the wonderful, by custom praised God aloud; with pure heart he sang and praised Him.)
From this Latin practice and the native metrical tradition there developed complex vernacular verse. An example is a short poem by an Irish missionary monk in a ninth century manuscript in Saint Gall, Switzerland (with rhyme, assonance and alliteration here marked):
Daith bech buide a húaim i n-úaim
ní súail a uide la gréin: fó for fuluth sa mag már dag a dagchomhal 'na chéir.
(Nimble is the yellow bee going from flower to hollow flower, no trifling journey in the sun; it flies boldly into the great plain, then returns to good company in the waxy hive.)
Such monastic lyrics appear from around the eighth century on, inspired by love of Nature, love of solitude and love of the Divine. They have been described as the finest Irish poetry of their age.
Later use
The professional poets had long praised famous men and continued to do so, but adopted the new and sophisticated verse forms invented in the monastic environment.
Secular poetry of this sort was mostly used for praise poetry and elegy. There are a comparatively small number of poems of a personal or satirical nature. It has been observed that the praise poem possibly represented a survival of paganism, insofar as it was thought to enhance the good fortune of the lord (the poet’s patron) to whom it was addressed. It has also been noted that the trained professional poet was a court official employed for a specific purpose and was esteemed accordingly. Such a poet expected to be handsomely remunerated. Poets belonged to particular families and each poet had a particular aristocratic patron, though it was acceptable to visit patrons other than one’s own.
There are also examples of praise poems written for aristocratic women, usually referring to their descent, their beauty, their generosity and their other admirable qualities.
The professional literati had their own schools, often referred to in English as bardic schools, but in Irish simply as . In them it was expected that pupils would master the complex forms of their art and acquire knowledge of Irish history and literature. There were graduated ranks, with the lower ranks including women. A pupil would need to attend such a school for six or seven years before being eligible to reach the summit of his profession.
The poets used a standard literary dialect, which was taught, it is likely, in the schools from the early 13th century on and which lasted unchanged until the 17th century, regardless of the changes which were occurring in popular speech. There were manuals for the purpose, composed perhaps in the fifteenth century and containing samples of the work of acknowledged masters. These continued to be used until the collapse of the traditional Gaelic hierarchy in the 17th century.