The aisling (Irish for 'vision', ), or vision poem, is a poetic genre that developed during the late 17th and 18th centuries in Irish language poetry. Format In an aisling, the island of Ireland appears to the poet in a vision in the form of a woman, sometimes young and beautiful, sometimes old and haggard. This female figure is generally referred to in the poems as An Spéirbhean (the sky-woman). She laments the current state of the Irish people and predicts an imminent revival of their fortunes, usually linked to the return of a Stuart pretender to the English throne. The form developed out of an earlier, non-political genre which was essentially an Irish form of the French reverdie, in which the poet meets a beautiful, supernatural woman who symbolises the spring season, the bounty of nature, and love. The first and greatest of the aisling poets was Aogán Ó Rathaille, Mac an Cheannaí. In his hands, the