''Annus Mirabilis'' is a

poem Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

written by

John Dryden John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration (En ...

published in 1667. It commemorated 1665–1666, the "year of miracles" of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Despite the poem's name, the year had been one of great tragedy, including the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Wednesday 5 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old London Wall, Roman city wall, while also extendi ...

. The title was perhaps meant to suggest that the events of the year could have been worse. Dryden wrote the poem while at Charlton in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, where he went to escape one of the great events of the year: the

Great Plague of London The Great Plague of London, lasting from 1665 to 1666, was the most recent major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England. It happened within the centuries-long Second plague pandemic, Second Pandemic, a period of intermittent buboni ...

. Johnson, Samuel. "Johnson on Annus Mirabilis" ''Annus Mirabilis''. John Dryden and William Dougal Christie. Clarendon Press (1915) p.xi-xii.

Historical context

The title of Dryden's poem, used without capitalisation, ''

annus mirabilis ''Annus mirabilis'' (pl. ''anni mirabiles'') is a Latin phrase that means "marvelous year", "wonderful year", or "miraculous year". This term has been used to refer to several years during which events of major importance are remembered, notably ...

'', derives its meaning from its Latin origins and describes a year of particularly notable events. According to the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'', Dryden's use of the term for the title of his poem constitutes the first known written use of the phrase in an English text. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' "Annus Mirabilis". The first event of the miraculous year was the

Battle of Lowestoft The Battle of Lowestoft took place on during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. A fleet of more than a hundred ships of the Dutch Republic, United Provinces commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam, Jacob van Wassenaer, Lord Obdam, at ...

fought by English and Dutch ships in 1665. The second was the Four Days Battle of June 1666, and finally the victory of the St. James's Day Battle a month later. The second part of the poem deals with the

that ran from September 2–7, 1666. The miracle of the Fire was that London was saved, that the fire was stopped, and that the great king ( Charles II) would rebuild, for he already announced his plans to improve the streets of London and to begin great projects. Dryden's view is that these disasters were all averted, that

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

had saved England from destruction, and that God had performed miracles for England.

Structure

The poem contains 1216 lines of verse, arranged in 304

quatrain A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four Line (poetry), lines. Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India ...

s. Each line consists of ten syllables, and each quatrain follows an abab

rhyme scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB rh ...

, a pattern referred to as a decasyllabic quatrain. Rather than write in the

heroic couplet A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used in epic and narrative poetry, and consisting of a rhyming pair of lines in iambic pentameter. Use of the heroic couplet was pioneered by Geoffrey Chaucer in the '' Legen ...

s found in his earlier works, Dryden used the decasyllabic quatrain exemplified in Sir John Davies' poem ''Nosce Teipsum'' in 1599. The style was revived by

William Davenant Sir William Davenant (baptised 3 March 1606 – 7 April 1668), also spelled D'Avenant, was an English poet and playwright. Along with Thomas Killigrew, Davenant was one of the rare figures in English Renaissance theatre whose career spanned bo ...

in his poem '' Gondibert'', which was published in 1651 and influenced Dryden's composition of ''Annus Mirabilis''.Ward, A. W., ''The Cambridge History of English and American Literature''. "Dryden: Annus Mirabilis". Volume 8: ''The Age of Dryden''

/ref> This particular style dictates that each quatrain should contain a

full stop The full stop ( Commonwealth English), period (North American English), or full point is a punctuation mark used for several purposes, most often to mark the end of a declarative sentence (as distinguished from a question or exclamation). A ...

, which A. W. Ward believes causes the verse to become "prosy".

References

External links

Dryden's "Annus Mirabilis"
{{John Dryden Poetry by John Dryden 1667 poems British poems