1.
English poetry
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This article focuses on poetry written in English from the United Kingdom, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The article does not include poetry from other countries where the English language is spoken, the earliest surviving English poetry, written in Anglo-Saxon, the direct predecessor of modern English, may have been composed as early as the 7th century. This is generally taken as marking the beginning of Anglo-Saxon poetry and it is possible to identify certain key moments, however. The Dream of the Rood was written before circa AD700, by and large, however, Anglo-Saxon poetry is categorised by the manuscripts in which it survives, rather than its date of composition. While the poetry that has survived is limited in volume, it is wide in breadth, beowulf is the only heroic epic to have survived in its entirety, but fragments of others such as Waldere and the Finnesburg Fragment show that it was not unique in its time. Other genres include much religious verse, from works to biblical paraphrase, elegies such as The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and The Ruin, and numerous proverbs, riddles. With one notable exception, Anglo-Saxon poetry depends on alliterative verse for its structure, with the Norman conquest of England, beginning in 1111 the Anglo-Saxon language rapidly diminished as a written literary language. The new aristocracy spoke predominantly Norman, and this became the language of courts, parliament. While Anglo-Norman or Latin was preferred for high culture, English literature by no means died out, other transitional works were preserved as popular entertainment, including a variety of romances and lyrics. With time, the English language regained prestige, and in 1362 it replaced French and Latin in Parliament, the reputation of Chaucers successors in the 15th century has suffered in comparison with him, though Lydgate and Skelton are widely studied. A group of Scottish writers arose who were believed to be influenced by Chaucer. The rise of Scottish poetry began with the writing of The Kingis Quair by James I of Scotland, the main poets of this Scottish group were Robert Henryson, William Dunbar and Gavin Douglas. The Renaissance was slow in coming to England, with the generally accepted start date being around 1509 and it is also generally accepted that the English Renaissance extended until the Restoration in 1660. However, a number of factors had prepared the way for the introduction of the new learning long before this start date. A number of medieval poets had, as noted, shown an interest in the ideas of Aristotle. The introduction of printing by Caxton in 1474 provided the means for the more rapid dissemination of new or recently rediscovered writers and thinkers. Caxton also printed the works of Chaucer and Gower and these books helped establish the idea of a poetic tradition that was linked to its European counterparts. In addition, the writings of English humanists like Thomas More and Thomas Elyot helped bring the ideas, the establishment of the Church of England in 1535 accelerated the process of questioning the Catholic world-view that had previously dominated intellectual and artistic life
2.
Joseph Addison
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Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison and his name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend, Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine. Addison was born in Millstone, Wiltshire, but soon after his birth his father, Lancelot Addison, was appointed Dean of Lichfield and he was educated at Charterhouse School, where he first met Richard Steele, and at The Queens College, Oxford. He excelled in classics, being noted for his Latin verse. In 1693, he addressed a poem to John Dryden, and his first major work and his translation of Virgils Georgics was published in the same year. While in Switzerland in 1702, he heard of the death of William III and he returned to England at the end of 1703. For more than a year he remained without employment, but the Battle of Blenheim in 1704 gave him an opportunity to distinguish himself. In 1705, with the Whigs in political power, Addison was made Under-Secretary of State, Addisons biographer states, In the field of his foreign responsibilities Addisons views were those of a good Whig. He had always believed that Englands power depended upon her wealth, her wealth upon her commerce, and her commerce upon the freedom of the seas, from 1708 to 1709 he was MP for the rotten borough of Lostwithiel. Addison was shortly afterwards appointed secretary to the new Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Wharton, under the influence of Wharton, he was Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons for Cavan Borough from 1709 until 1713. From 1710, he represented Malmesbury, in his county of Wiltshire. He encountered Jonathan Swift in Ireland and remained there for a year, subsequently, he helped found the Kitcat Club and renewed his association with Richard Steele. In 1709 Steele began to bring out Tatler, to which Addison became almost immediately a contributor, thereafter he started The Spectator and this paper, which at first appeared daily, was kept up until 20 December 1714. His last undertaking was The Freeholder, a paper, 1715–16. He wrote the libretto for Thomas Claytons opera Rosamond, which had a premiere in London in 1707. In 1713 Addisons tragedy Cato was produced, and was received with acclamation by both Whigs and Tories and he followed this effort with a comedic play, The Drummer. In 1712, Addison wrote his most famous work of fiction, Cato and it has a prologue written by Alexander Pope and an epilogue by Dr. Garth. The play was a success throughout Britain and its possessions in the New World and it continued to grow in popularity, especially in the American colonies, for several generations
3.
Allan Ramsay (poet)
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Allan Ramsay was a Scottish poet, playwright, publisher, librarian, and impresario of early Enlightenment Edinburgh. Allan Ramsay was born at Leadhills, Lanarkshire to John Ramsay, superintendent of Lord Hopetouns lead-mines and his wife, Alice Bower, Allan Ramsay and his elder brother Robert probably attended the parish school at Crawfordjohn. In 1701 Allan was apprenticed to a wig-maker in Edinburgh and he married Christian Ross in 1712, a few years after he had established himself as a wig-maker in the High Street, and soon found himself in comfortable circumstances. His eldest child was Allan Ramsay, the portrait painter, Ramsays first efforts in verse-making were inspired by the meetings of the Easy Club, of which he was an original member, and in 1715 he became the Club Laureate. The choice of the two names has some significance, when we consider his later life as the associate of the Queen Anne poets. In 1716 he had published a transcript of Christs Kirk on the Green from the Bannatyne Manuscript. In 1718 he republished the piece with more supplementary verses, in the following year he printed a collection of Scots Songs. The success of these ventures prompted him to collect his poems in 1720, the volume was issued by subscription, and brought in the sum of four hundred guineas. Four years later he removed to another shop, in the neighbouring Luckenbooths, Ramsay is considered to have created the first circulating library in Britain when he rented books from his shop in 1726. The Tea-Table Miscellany is A Collection of Choice Songs Scots and English, containing some of Ramsays own, some by his friends, several ballads and songs. In The Ever Green, being a Collection of Scots Poems wrote by the Ingenious before 1600, Ramsay had another purpose, nearly all the pieces were taken from the Bannatyne manuscript, though they are by no means verbatim copies. They included his version of Christs Kirk and a pastiche by the editor entitled The Vision. While engaged on two series, he produced, in 1725, his dramatic pastoral The Gentle Shepherd. In the volume of poems published in 1721 Ramsay had shown his bent to this genre, especially in Patie and Roger, the success of the drama was remarkable. It passed through several editions, and was performed at the theatre in Edinburgh, its title is known in every corner of Scotland. In 1726 he published anonymously Poems in English and Latin, on the Archers and Royal Company of Archers and he wrote the words to the Archers March, Another volume of his poems appeared in 1728. Ramsay wrote little afterwards, though he published a few shorter poems, a complete edition of his Poems appeared in London in 1731 and in Dublin in 1733. With a touch of vanity he expressed the fear lest the coolness of fancy that attends advanced years should make me risk the reputation I had acquired and he was already on terms of intimacy with the leading men of letters in Scotland and England
4.
Isaac Watts
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Isaac Watts was an English Christian minister, hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular writer, his work was part of evangelization. He was recognized as the Father of English Hymnody, credited with some 750 hymns, many of his hymns remain in use today and have been translated into numerous languages. Born in Southampton, England, in 1674, Watts was brought up in the home of a committed religious Nonconformist, his father, at King Edward VI School, Watts had a classical education, learning Latin, Greek and Hebrew. From an early age, Watts displayed a propensity for rhyme and he went to the Dissenting Academy at Stoke Newington in 1690. Much of the remainder of his life centred around that village, following his education, Watts was called as pastor of a large independent chapel in London, where he helped train preachers, despite his poor health. Taking work as a tutor, Watts lived with the Nonconformist Hartopp family at Fleetwood House. Through them he became acquainted with their neighbours, Sir Thomas Abney. Invited for a week to Hertfordshire, Watts eventually lived for a total of 36 years in the Abney household, most of the time at Abney House, their second residence. On the death of Sir Thomas Abney in 1722, the widow Lady Mary and her last unmarried daughter, Elizabeth and she invited Watts to continue with their household. He lived at Abney Hall until his death in 1748, Watts particularly enjoyed the grounds at Abney Park, which Lady Mary planted with two elm walks leading down to an island heronry in the Hackney Brook. Watts often sought inspiration there for the books and hymns he wrote. Watts died in Stoke Newington in 1748, and was buried in Bunhill Fields and he left an extensive legacy of hymns, treatises, educational works and essays. His work was influential amongst Nonconformist independents and religious revivalists of the 18th century, such as Philip Doddridge, Sacred music scholar Stephen Marini describes the ways in which Watts contributed to English hymnody. Notably, Watts led by including new poetry for original songs of Christian experience to be used in worship, the older tradition was based on the poetry of the Bible, notably the Psalms. Watts introduction of extra-Biblical poetry opened up a new era of Protestant hymnody as other poets followed in his path, Watts also introduced a new way of rendering the Psalms in verse for church services. The Psalms were originally written in Biblical Hebrew within Judaism, in early Christendom, they were affirmed in the Biblical canon as part of the Old Testament. Watts proposed that the translations of the Psalms as sung by Protestant Christians should give them a specifically Christian perspective
5.
Ludvig Holberg
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Ludvig Holberg, Baron of Holberg was a writer, essayist, philosopher, historian and playwright born in Bergen, Norway, during the time of the Dano-Norwegian double monarchy. He was influenced by Humanism, the Enlightenment and the Baroque, Holberg is considered the founder of modern Danish and Norwegian literature, and is best known for the comedies he wrote in 1722–1723 for the Lille Grønnegade Theatre in Copenhagen. Holbergs works about natural and common law were widely read by many Danish law students over two hundred years, from 1736 to 1936, Holberg was the youngest of six brothers. His father, Christian Nielsen Holberg, died before Ludvig was one year old and he was educated in Copenhagen, and was a teacher at the University of Copenhagen for many years. At the same time, he started his career as an author. He began to study theology at the University of Copenhagen and later taught law, history. In Holbergs youth, it was common to study theology and specialize according to degree, for example in Greek, Latin. For the purpose of becoming a lawyer, it was normal to study abroad, Holberg was formally appointed assistant professor after having first worked as one without pay. He had to accept the first available position, which was teaching metaphysics, later, he became a professor and taught rhetoric and Latin. Finally, he was given a professorship in the subject which he prized most and was most productive in and he was not formally admitted to Oxford University, but spent his time there using the libraries and participating in Latin discussions with the English students. Holbergs travels were an inspiration in his later writings – these experiences matured him both artistically and morally. Holberg let himself be inspired by old Latin comedies and newer French comedies he had seen in Paris and his writings can be divided into three periods, during which he produced mainly history, 1711–1718, mainly satirical poetry and stage comedies, 1719–1731, and mainly philosophy, 1731–1750. His rich output of comedies during the period was shaped by his role as house dramatist at Denmarks first public theater. These comedies are the works on which his fame rests today, Holbergs only novel, the satirical science-fiction/fantasy Niels Klims Underground Travels was originally published in Latin in 1741 as Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterraneum. In Paris, Holberg met the Danish scientist Jacob Winsløw, who was Catholic, Winsløw tried to convert Holberg, without success. This was a new, modern understanding of the question of religion, Holberg was interested in intellect because he felt that this is what binds society together. He also wondered why there was so much evil in the world, Holberg was open to biblical criticism, and Holbergs religious representation was, for the most part, deism. He was critical of the notion of original sin, instead subscribing to the notion of free will
6.
Danish literature
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Danish literature, a subset of Scandinavian literature, stretches back to the Middle Ages. The earliest preserved texts from Denmark are runic inscriptions on stones and other objects. In the late 12th century Saxo Grammaticus wrote Gesta Danorum, during the 16th century, the Lutheran Reformation came to Denmark. During this era, Christiern Pedersen translated the New Testament into Danish, fine poetry was created in the early 17th century by Anders Arrebo. The challenges faced during Denmarks absolute monarchy in 1660 are chronicled in Jammersminde by Leonora Christina of the Blue Tower, ludvig Holberg, influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment and Humanism, is considered the founder of modern Danish and Norwegian literature. Neoclassical poetry, drama, and the essay flourished during the 18th century influenced by French, German influence is seen in the verse of the leading poets of the late 18th century such as Johannes Ewald and Jens Baggesen. Other 18th century writers include the hymn writer Hans Adolph Brorson, during Denmarks Golden Age, literature centred on Romantic thinking, with authors such as philosopher Henrik Steffens and the poet Bernhard Severin Ingemann. One of the most important figures in Danish literary culture was Nikolaj Grundtvig, Hans Christian Andersen is remembered first and foremost for his fairy tales, written between 1835 and 1872. Søren Kierkegaard was an existentialist philosopher and a theologian, Modern Breakthrough was a strong Scandinavian movement covering naturalism and debating literature towards the end of the 19th century, led by Georg Brandes. Henrik Pontoppidan became a Nobel prize winner in 1917 for his descriptions of present-day life in Denmark. Jens Peter Jacobsen began the naturalist movement in Denmark with his romantic, melancholic poems, other writers include Holger Drachmann, Herman Bang, and Sophus Schandorph. The 20th century began with reactions against the naturalist movement, moving instead towards nationalism, a national conservative trend was embodied in the works of Kaj Munk and Valdemar Rørdam. Modern realism was practiced by Bang and J. P. Jacobsen, social realism was practiced by Hans Kirk and Martin Andersen Nexø. Jeppe Aakjær, Johannes Jørgensen and Nobel prize-winner Johannes V. Jensen brought a new dimension to Danish literature, karen Blixen, who also used the penname Isak Dinesen is notable for her memoir Out of Africa. In general, the trade continues to thrive in Denmark despite recent problems triggered by the current economic crisis. The earliest preserved texts from Denmark are runic inscriptions on memorial stones, some of them contain short poems in alliterative verse. Saxos work is an important primary source for the study of Scandinavian myths, other medieval literary works include the Danish ballads, recorded since the 16th century by aristocratic ladies in their manuscript albums. These led to the Book of a Hundred Ballads published by Anders Sørensen Vedel, Collection Tragica by Metter Gøya, the 16th century brought the Lutheran Reformation to Denmark and a new period in the nations literature
7.
1709 in poetry
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Nationality words link to articles with information on the nations poetry or literature. The publisher, Jacob Tonson, had solicited poems from Pope for the three years before, but publication was delayed and finally occurred three weeks before Popes 21st birthday. Pope did not visit London at the time of publication, instead travelling there in June, Tonson was a hard bargainer, and paid Pope 13 guineas, for the young mans verses. Pope would eventually become a hard bargainer himself in dealing with publishers, the poet also contributed a translation, The Episode of Sarpedon, Translated from the Twelfth and Sixteenth Books of Homers Iliads. John Denham, a poet of Drydens generation, had written the best-known translation of Sarpedons speech, on May 17, Popes friend, Wycherley, wrote to him that all the best Judges like your part of the Book so well, that the rest is likd the worse. Pope wrote back three days later, referring to Tonsons low payments but valuable publicizing, I can be content with a bare saving game, Jacob creates Poets, as Kings sometimes do Knights, not for their honour, but for money. Certainly he ought to be esteemd a worker of Miracles, who is rich by Poetry. What Authors lose, their Booksellers have won, So Pimps grow rich, death years link to the corresponding in poetry article, Early 1709
8.
Matthew Prior
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Matthew Prior was an English poet and diplomat. He is also known as a contributor to The Examiner, Prior was probably born in Middlesex. He was the son of a Nonconformist joiner at Wimborne Minster and his father moved to London, and sent him to Westminster School, under Dr. Busby. On his fathers death, he school, and was cared for by his uncle. Here Lord Dorset found him reading Horace, and set him to translate an ode and he did so well that the Earl offered to contribute to the continuation of his education at Westminster. One of his schoolfellows and friends was Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax and it was to avoid being separated from Montagu and his brother James that Prior accepted, against his patrons wish, a scholarship recently founded at St Johns College, Cambridge. He took his B. A. degree in 1686, in collaboration with Montagu he wrote in 1687 the City Mouse and Country Mouse, in ridicule of John Drydens The Hind and the Panther. It was an age when satirists could be sure of patronage, Montagu was promoted at once, and Prior, three years later, became secretary to the embassy at the Hague. After four years of this, he was appointed a gentleman of the Kings bedchamber, apparently he acted as one of the Kings secretaries, and in 1697 he was secretary to the plenipotentiaries who concluded the Peace of Ryswick. The poets knowledge of French is specially mentioned among his qualifications, at this period Prior could say with good reason that he had commonly business enough upon his hands, and was only a poet by accident. To verse, however, which had laid the foundation of his fortunes, after his return from France Prior became under-secretary of state and succeeded John Locke as a commissioner of trade. In 1701 he sat in Parliament for East Grinstead, perhaps in consequence of this for nine years there is no mention of his name in connection with any public transaction. His share in negotiating the Treaty of Utrecht, of which he is said to have disapproved personally, Prior is also known as a contributor to The Examiner newspaper. When the Queen died and the Whigs regained power, he was impeached by Robert Walpole, in 1709, he had already published a collection of verse. During this imprisonment, maintaining his cheerful philosophy, he wrote his longest humorous poem, Alma, or and this, along with his most ambitious work, Solomon, and other Poems on several Occasions, was published by subscription in 1718. He died at Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, a seat of the Earl of Oxford, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, a History of his Own Time was issued by J Bancks in 1740. The book pretended to be derived from Priors papers, but it is doubtful how far it should be regarded as authentic, Priors poems show considerable variety, a pleasant scholarship and great executive skill. The most ambitious, i. e. Solomon, and the paraphrase of The Nut-Brown Maid, are the least successful and his tales in rhyme, though often objectionable in their themes, are excellent specimens of narrative skill, and as an epigrammatist he is unrivalled in English
9.
Thomas d'Urfey
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Thomas DUrfey was an English writer and wit. He composed plays, songs, and poetry, in addition to writing jokes and he was an important innovator and contributor in the evolution of the Ballad opera. DUrfey was born in Devonshire and began his life as a scrivener. DUrfey lived in an age of self-conscious elitism and anti-egalitarianism, a reaction against the tendencies of the previous Puritan reign during the Interregnum. He wrote 500 songs, and 32 plays, starting with The Siege of Memphis in 1676 and his first play was a failure, but he responded in the following year with a comedy, Madame Fickle, which proved more successful. His plays include The Fond Husband, The Virtuous Wife, and Wonders in the Sun, or, in 1698 he wrote The Campaigners as a reply and satire of Jeremy Colliers anti-theatrical scourges. His multi-volume Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy and his play The Injured Princess is an adaptation of Shakespeares Cymbeline. Durfey wrote widely in a witty, satirical vein, usually from a point of view. His songs generally fell into three types, court songs, political songs, and country songs—the latter tending to be more than a little bawdy, over forty different composers set his lyrics to music, including Henry Purcell. Purcell composed music for DUrfeys play The Comical History of Don Quixote, DUrfey wrote tunes himself as well, though even he admitted that they were not very good. Many of the lyrics in Wit and Mirth are preceded by their melodies written in musical notation. DUrfey was a friend of the great essayists Joseph Addison and Richard Steele and he wrote parodies, and was parodied in return. He stuttered slightly—except, it was said, when he sang or swore, at one point in his career, a jealous rival would respond to DUrfeys play Love for Money with a parody called Wit for Money, or, Poet Stutterer. He was buried on the day of his death at the church of St Jamess. His lasting achievement lay in his best songs,10 of the 68 songs in The Beggars Opera were DUrfeys, all animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it. Cyrus Lawrence Day, The Songs of Thomas DUrfey, Volume IX, Harvard Studies in English, Cambridge, Thomas DUrfey, Lewd Songs and Low Ballads of the Eighteenth Century, Bawdy Songs From Thomas Durfeys Pills to Purge Melancholy, Boulder, Colorado, Bartholomew Press,1991. Free scores by Thomas dUrfey at the International Music Score Library Project
10.
Nicholas Rowe (writer)
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Nicholas Rowe, English dramatist, poet and miscellaneous writer, was appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in 1715. Nicholas Rowe was born in Little Barford, Bedfordshire, England, son of John Rowe, barrister and sergeant-at-law and his family possessed a considerable estate at Lamerton in Devonshire. His father John Rowe, practised law, and published Benlows, the future English poet was educated first at Highgate School, and then at Westminster School under the guidance of Dr. Busby. In 1688, Rowe became a Kings Scholar, which was followed by his entrance into Middle Temple in 1691 and his entrance into Middle Temple was decided upon by his father, who felt that Rowe had made sufficient progress to qualify him to study law. On his fathers death, when he was nineteen, he became the master of an independent fortune and he was left to his own direction, and from that time ignored law to try his hand first at poetry, and then later at writing plays. Rowe married first a daughter of a Mr Parsons and left a son John, by his second wife Anne, née Devenish, he had a daughter Charlotte. Rowe acted as under-secretary to the duke of Queensberry when he was secretary of state for Scotland. On the accession of George I he was made a surveyor of customs and he was also appointed clerk of the council to the Prince of Wales, and in 1718 was nominated by Lord Chancellor Parker as clerk of the presentations in Chancery. He died on 6 December 1718, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, to these, so mourn’d in Death, so lov’d in Life. The childless Parent & the widow’d wife With tears inscribes this monument Stone, upon his death his widow received a pension from George I in 1719 in recognition of her husbands translation of Lucan. The Ambitious Stepmother, Rowes first play, produced in 1700 at Lincoln’s Inn Fields by Thomas Betterton and this was followed in 1701 by Tamerlane. In this play the conqueror Timur represented William III, and Louis XIV is denounced as Bajazet and it was for many years regularly acted on the anniversary of Williams landing at Torbay. In Dublin in 1712, at a time when political passions were running high, the Fair Penitent, an adaptation of Massinger and Fields The Fatal Dowry, was pronounced by Dr Johnson as one of the most pleasing tragedies ever written in English. In it occurs the famous character of Lothario, whose name passed into current use as the equivalent of a rake, calista is said to have suggested to Samuel Richardson the character of Clarissa Harlowe, as Lothario suggested Lovelace. In 1704, Rowe tried his hand at comedy, producing The Biter at Lincolns Inn Fields, the play is said to have amused no one except the author, and Rowe returned to tragedy in Ulysses. The story was set in England in an obscure and barbarous age, rodogune was a tragic character, of high spirit and violent passions, yet with a wicked with a soul that would have been heroic if it had been virtuous. The Tragedy of Jane Shore, professedly an imitation of Shakespeares style, was played at Drury Lane with Mrs Oldfield in the role in 1714. It ran for nineteen nights, and kept the stage longer than any other of Rowes works, in the play, which consists chiefly of domestic scenes and private distress, the wife is forgiven because she repents, and the husband is honoured because he forgives
11.
Irish poetry
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Irish poetry includes poetry in two languages, Irish and English. The earliest surviving poems in Irish date back to the 6th century and this culminated in the work of the poets of the Irish Literary Revival in the late 19th and early 20th century. Poetry in Irish represents the oldest vernacular poetry in Europe, the earliest examples date from the 6th century, and are generally short lyrics on themes from religion or the world of nature. They were frequently written by their authors in the margins of the illuminated manuscripts that they were copying. The best known example is Pangur Bán and it was practical for poems to be short because the Irish recognized that it was necessary to use any means necessary to make the poems lasting in their oral culture. To accomplish such a feat as well as they have, they used complicated rhyme schemes that would render a poem nonsensical if any of the key words were changed from the original version, in an oral culture, Irish poetry had many uses. A poem could be used to both the poet and the subject of the poem, oftentimes kings would commission poets to create a piece about them. Such poems would be passed on to descendants so they would remember the deeds of past generations. Kings would also commission poets to write poems of advertisement, speaking of the greatness and worthiness. Oral poetry, because it was in the vernacular, was used for entertainment. Poems that were entertaining could also be informative, teaching people lessons or offering them wisdom of experience for dealing with situations they would encounter in their everyday lives. Finally, poems, especially those featured in the sagas, were thought to be an instrument of the supernatural, Another source of early Irish poetry is the poems in the tales and sagas, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge. Unlike many other European epic cycles, the Irish sagas were written in prose, Irish bards formed a professional hereditary caste of highly trained, learned poets. As officials of the court of king or chieftain, they performed a number of official roles and they were chroniclers and satirists whose job it was to praise their employers and damn those who crossed them. It was believed that a well-aimed bardic satire, glam dicin, the Metrical Dindshenchas, or Lore of Places, is probably the major surviving monument of Irish bardic verse. It is a great onomastic anthology of naming legends of significant places in the Irish landscape, the earliest of these date from the 11th century, and were probably originally compiled on a provincial basis. As a national compilation, the Metrical Dindshenchas has come down to us in two different recensions. Knowledge of the real or putative history of local places formed an important part of the education of the elite in ancient Ireland, verse tales of Fionn and the Fianna, sometimes known as Ossianic poetry, were extremely common in Ireland and Scotland throughout this period
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