Irish Bardic Poetry

Irish bardic poetry is the body of writing produced by a class of poets trained in the bardic schools of Ireland and the Gaelic parts of Scotland, existing down to about the middle of the seventeenth century in Ireland and the early eighteenth century in Scotland. Most of the surviving texts are in Middle Irish or early Modern Irish, and although the manuscripts are plentiful, very few have been published; the tradition is considered a period of great literary stability owing to its formalized literary language, which changed very little over time.