Scottish Gaelic women's poetry up to 1750

The intention of this work was not to provide a detailed study of all the poems composed by women up to 1750, but rather to find the threads which linked them to each other. These threads are mainly thematic, although others, such as the songs connected with a story, cross a thematic range while sharing a common link. The spectrum of topics dealt with in the women's poetry is broad, and the aim was to show the similarities and differences in the treatment of recurring themes by the composers. Songs were collected on the basis of ascription to a woman author, clues in the text which indicated a woman author, and, in some cases, nothing in the text which excluded possible female authorship. The songs were collected from printed and manuscript sources, and one version of each has been included in the appendix. The ascription of some of the songs in printed collections seems doubtful, and in such cases the song has been included in the anonymous section of the appendix. Likewise, the 'anonymous' songs for which an author can be identified with a fair degree of certainty have been included under the name of the relevant poetess. The dating of some of the songs is problematic, and textual evidence, where it is present, has been relied on in order to place the anonymous poems in as near to chronological order as possible in the appendix. The compositions of named poetesses are placed in alphabetical order, by surname; those for whom a name, but no surname, is known being placed between these and the anonymous songs. The basic criterion for discussion of each song thus collected was that its theme was not confined to one song or one author. A song from the Thirty Years War, although included in the appendix, is not discussed, as the conflicts dealt with by the other poetesses of the period are those which directly concerned themselves and their clans. Likewise, the religious poems of SIleas na Ceapaich have been omitted, as she is the only poetess of the time who produced such compositions. Comment on the metrical structures used takes a wider viewpoint rather than overly concentrating on specific songs. As individual metrical analysis of such a large number of songs was not possible in the context of this study, the aim was to identify the main metres used, and the periods in which each was most popular, along with a discussion of the origins and forms of these metres. Where there is a doubt over the ascription of a song to a particular author, as much evidence as possible was collected and collated in order to verify or discount the ascription. Likewise, where there is conflicting information as to the identity or background of a poetess, the arguments have been studied in order to come to what is hopefully a satisfactory conclusion, based on the available information. While collecting the songs, it became evident that a large number of them had a story attached which either explained the song or the circumstances which brought about its composition. A number of these have been grouped together in one chapter, although others were more relevant in the chapters dealing with specific topics. One must admit that some of the stories are not always directly related to the composition of the song, but where these have been included it is in order to illustrate a particular aspect of the subject being dealt with, or the character of the person addressed. Comparison of the women's songs with those of their contemporary male counterparts would perhaps have been desirable, but was not possible, given the time period and the number of topics dealt with. In any case, the aim of this study was not to discover an identifying trait which distinguished female poetry from that of men, but to discuss the works of the women poets in relation to their social situation, their lives, and each other