I've just been confronted (yet again) with my own ignorance. Caedmon is the earliest English poet whose name is known, but I was only vaguely aware of him. Shouldn't he be someone to be celebrated? At the very least, we should be more aware of him. According to Wikipedia some think him a genius
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A6dmon%27s_Hymn

Non-English WOL members won't be so interested of course. Who were the earliest known poets of other countries (Scotland, Wales and Ireland in particular)?

S'pose I'd better go and look him up then! (I thought he was some monk detective - silly me :)

Here, for everybody's delectation, is the poem, with a translation frome the Old English:

Cædmon's Hymn to God
By Cædmon (Ostensibly)
Translated by A.Z. Foreman

Hail now the holder of heaven's realm,
That architect's might, his mind's many ways,
Lord forever and father of glory,
Ultimate crafter of all wonders,
Holy Maker who hoisted the heavens
To roof the heads of the human race,
And fashioned land for the legs of man,
Liege of the worldborn, Lord almighty.

The Original:

Nū sculon heriġean heofonrīċes weard,
Meotodes meahte ond his mōdġeþanc,
weorc wuldorfæder, swā hē wundra ġehwæs,
ēċe Drihten, ōr onstealde.
Hē ǣrest sceōp eorðan bearnum
heofon tō hrōfe, hāliġ Scyppend;
þā middanġeard monncynnes weard,
ēċe Drihten, æfter tēode
fīrum foldan, Frēa ælmihtiġ.

Frēa ælmihtiġ,indeed! ;)