caoine

The echo of this keen (Irish – "caoine"), softened by the passage of time and the sharing of friendship, can perhaps be picked up in the cadences of the poem.

Poem of the week: A Fire Shared by Peter Didsbury 2010

Their names are blest, their caoine sung; our bitter tears are dried;

The Four Winds of Eirinn 1906

We feel Synge must have followed those people carrying the dead body, and touched to the quick by the _caoine_, passed the touch on to us, for in the lyric swell of the close we get the true emotion.

Principles of Freedom 1899

The Irish keen [_caoine_] may still be heard in Algeria and Upper Egypt, even as Herodotus heard it chanted by Lybian women.

An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 Mary Frances Cusack 1864

I believe the stories of banshees must have arisen from the sound of the caoine.

The Letters of "Norah" on Her Tour Through Ireland Margaret Moran Dixon McDougall 1862

At Cong, for the first time in my life, I heard the Irish lament or caoine for the dead.

The Letters of "Norah" on Her Tour Through Ireland Margaret Moran Dixon McDougall 1862

After the burial service was over the women, kneeling by the new made grave, among the rank wet grass, and the dripping ivy, raised the caoine.

The Letters of "Norah" on Her Tour Through Ireland Margaret Moran Dixon McDougall 1862

And Blath says that she will sing the _caoine, _the keening at the interment. "

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 2003

"I was sure of it when I heard that she had a good voice and, moreover, knew the _caoine, _the keening, the lament for the dead.

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 2003

I have heard the _caoine _and know it would have been only a small step from producing that terrible sound to producing the wail associated with a Banshee. "

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 2003