Traditionally this is the earliest Irish poem being supposed to have been spoken by Aimirgin, the son of Mile, from the deck of one of the invading Milesian ships. The metre of the original is called Rosg. Poems in this metre, Dr. Hyde remarks (in “A Literary History of Ireland”), depended for their effect upon rapidity of utterance partly, and partly upon a tendency towards alliteration. In this particular utterance a remarkable effect is gained by the repetition of images as a sort of internal rhyme.
