From the beginning of the 13th century down to the middle of the 17th century, a large body of poetry was written by poets trained in the Bardic Schools as they existed in Ireland and parts of ...

The profession of hereditary bardic poet was among the most distinctive aspects of Gaelic society. In pagan times poets were thought to be gifted with second sight, able in a trance or frenzy to ...

Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. This week marks 157 years since Walt Whitman’s poetry first appeared in ...

Ireland possesses the oldest vernacular poetry in Europe. Its earliest forms (dating from the sixth century AD) trace the movement from a pagan to a Christian Ireland. The initial reliance on ...

In "As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life," Walt Whitman is not the bard most of us know. Here, three American poets -- Frank Bidart, Marie Howe, and Galway Kinnell -- give voice to Whitman's stunning ...

The idea was the brainchild of Arthur Uther Pendragon, known as King Arthur, who hopes to see the "Battle of the Bards" ...

We have a great bardic ambassador in Cerys Matthews who has done much to demystify poetry. When she released her album featuring 10 poets earlier this year - We Come from the Sun - she described how ...

The profession of hereditary bardic poet was among the most distinctive aspects of Gaelic society. In pagan times poets were thought to be gifted with second sight, able in a trance or frenzy to ...