[11] Deibhidh, in Old Irish Debide, a neuter word, which Thurneysen translates "cut in two," is not really a rhyme but a generic name for a metre, containing twenty-four species. The essence of the principal Deibhidh, however, is the peculiar manner of rhyming with words of a different length, so that this system has sometimes been loosely called Deibhidh rhyme. In the oldest poetry a trisyllable instead of a dissyllable rhyme could be used as the end word, of the second line when the first line ended with a monosyllable, but in the strictness of later times this was disallowed.
[12] "Tús onóra cidh dual di,
Tuar anshógha an eigsi.
Glac bárr-lag mar chúbhair tonn
Do sháraigh dath na bhfaoilionn.
Gníomh follus fáth na h-eachtra
Fá'r ciorrbadh mo chuideachta."
These specimens are taken from unedited manuscripts in my own possession, copied by O'Curry from I know not what originals.
[13] Thus in the Codex St. Pauli we find these verses:—
"Messe ocus Pangur ban
Cechtar náthar fria saindán
Bith a menma-sunn fri seilgg
Mu menma céin im sain-ceirdd.
Caraim-se fos ferr gach clu
Oc mo lebran leir ingnu
Ni foirmtech frimm Pangur ban
Caraid sesin a macc-dán."
[14] The end rhyming words in verses 6-10 for example are as follows—fóe nóe, bátha hilblátha, bláthaib thráthaib, gnáth tráth, datho moithgretho, chéul Arggutnéul, mrath etargnath, cruais clúais, bás indgás, n-Emne comamre.
[15] Compare, too, the verses that the monk wrote in the margin of the St. Gall MS. which he was copying, on hearing the blackbird sing—