The monastic poets borrowed from both native and Latin traditions to create elaborate syllabic verse forms, and used them for religious and nature poetry.
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.
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):[1] (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.)
[1] 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.
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.
Verse of this sort could be a vehicle for magical harm or aoir (called “satire” in English, though with only partial accuracy), leading to injury or death.
An example is “A Chláirsioch Chnuic Í Chosgair” by Gofraidh Fionn Ó Dálaigh (-1387): (Harp of the Hill of Ó Coscair, bringing sleep to eyes long sleepless, speaking with a low sweet cry, clear, refreshing, grave...) Seventeenth century Ireland, which experienced periods of great political turmoil, saw the gradual replacement of aristocratic native patrons by incomers of mostly English origin who had little interest in indigenous traditions.
In Gaelic-speaking Scotland dán díreach persisted for longer, though already accentual (sung) poetry had come to the fore, as exemplified by the work of Màiri nighean Alasdair Ruaidh (c.1615–c.1707).
The metrical structure is as follows:[8] (Let Scotland of the narrow streams render what is right to the island of Ireland, hilly land of shining waterfalls, before they fall into dispute.)