Kildare Poems

Together with a second, shorter set of poems in the so-called Loscombe Manuscript, they constitute the first and most important linguistic document of the early development of Irish English in the centuries after the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland.

They are preserved in a single manuscript (British Library, Harley 913), where they are scattered between a number of Latin and Old French texts.

Ware made several excerpts from the book, including the "Yung men of Waterford" poem that is no longer found in Harley 913 today.

Whan the somer is dai is hote, The yung nunnes takith a bote And doth ham forth in that riuer, Both with oris and with stere.

When the summer's day is hot, the young nuns take a boat, and go forth on that river rowing with oars and steering.