Dán teagascach dar tús "A dhuine, cuímhnigh ar do chríochaibh déidheanacha"

A didactic poem beginning 'O man, think about your divine ends' is available in around eighty manuscripts from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In addition, at least two English translations have come down from the same script period. It is clear, therefore, that the poem itself was in great demand among writers in Ireland at that time. It will be seen below that it is composed in the meter of the lament, but if it is, it is not divided into four-line stanzas throughout the manuscripts: a non-strophic arrangement that can be found in some sources, some early sources among them, and a variation in the total number of lines (from between c.240 and c.280 lines). When the four-line form is adhered to, there is also variation in the manuscripts regarding the number of verses, but the norm is between twenty and ten to twenty-three verses more or less.