Carolan is a borderline poet who composed popular instrumental pieces as well as songs to which he wrote simple, "amateurish" lyrics in Irish (DNB). Many still survived over a centural later in the oral folk repertoire and in manuscript form. As a professional harper, Carolan enjoyed a high social status in Ireland, where music was a large part of the culture. The harp was also considered closely related to the bardic poetic tradition. He had many prominent patrongs, as well as Irish poet friends, but evidently he "would not have been considered a poet by the cognoscenti" (DNB).