THE WORLD’S DEBT TO THE IRISH 
on the Nativity is often printed as a separate hymn 
or so used in the liturgy, present further examples 
of the use of similar vowel and consonant sounds at 
the end of lines which represent the striving after 
rhyme that was to be so interesting a modality of 
the Latin hymns of the Church in the later Middle 
Ages. These represent the beginnings of what was 
to be a very significant use of similar sounds for 
poetic purposes in Latin. 
“Lavacra puri gurgitis 
Coelestis agnus attigit: 
Peccata, quae non detulit, 
Nos abluendo sustulit. 
Miraculis dedit fidem, 
Habere se Deum patrem, 
Infirma sanans corpora, 
Resuscitans cadavera.” 
Another excellent example of Irish rhymed 
poetry is the lament of the son of King Eogan of 
Connaught for the life of scholarly peace and in- 
tellectual happiness which he felt it necessary to give 
up because as a king's son his duty toward his people 
called him out from Clonmacnois and its cloistered 
life into the hurly-burly of the world. It would 
remind one of Hamlet called away from the uni- 
versity by the death of his father to find that life 
held no more of joy and peace for him because the 
practical life of the world démanded that he should 
devote himself to affairs of state under trying cir- 
cumstances. 
116