The ''Threnodia Augustalis'' is a 517-line

occasional poem Occasional poetry is poetry composed for a particular occasion. In the history of literature, it is often studied in connection with orality, performance, and patronage. Term As a term of literary criticism, "occasional poetry" describes the wor ...

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. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the p ...

to commemorate the death of Charles II in February 1685. The poem was "rushed into print" within a month. The title is a reference to the classical

threnody A threnody is a wailing ode, song, hymn or poem of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person. The term originates from the Greek word θρηνῳδία (''threnoidia''), from θρῆνος (''threnos'', "wailing") and ᾠδ� ...

, a poem of mourning, and to Charles as a "new

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

" (see

Augustan literature Augustan literature (sometimes referred to misleadingly as Georgian literature) is a literary genre, style of British literature produced during the reigns of Anne, Queen of Great Britain, Queen Anne, George I of Great Britain, King George I, an ...

). It is subtitled "A Funeral-Pindarique Poem Sacred to the Happy Memory of King Charles II," and is one of several poems on the subject published at the time (see 1685 in poetry). Although not one of Dryden's better-known works, the ''Threnodia'' is cited twice in ''The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations'', for "Mute and magnificent, without a tear" (stanza 2), and a couplet expressing

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

sentiment (stanza 10): The ''Threnodia'' is marked by "the stately enthusiasm of the time," but also lends itself to charges of bathos. The English critic

George Saintsbury George Edward Bateman Saintsbury, FBA (23 October 1845 – 28 January 1933), was an English critic, literary historian, editor, teacher, and wine connoisseur. He is regarded as a highly influential critic of the late 19th and early 20th centur ...

noted that the poem "is not exempt from the faults of its kind; but it has merits which for that kind are decidedly unusual," and singles out a stanza that "adroitly at once praises and satirizes Charles's patronage of literary men" for its quality. As indicated by its subtitle, the poem exhibits metrical complexities in imitation of a pindaric

ode An ode (from grc, ᾠδή, ōdḗ) is a type of lyric poetry. Odes are elaborately structured poems praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structured in three majo ...

, that is, the structurally intricate poetry of the

Greek lyric Greek lyric is the body of lyric poetry written in dialects of Ancient Greek. It is primarily associated with the early 7th to the early 5th centuries BC, sometimes called the "Lyric Age of Greece", but continued to be written into the Hellenisti ...

poet

Pindar Pindar (; grc-gre, Πίνδαρος , ; la, Pindarus; ) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar i ...

. The stanzas are irregular, and both line length and the rhyming pattern vary. Early editions misunderstood the pindaric vagaries of the ''Threnodia'' and are sometimes erratic in using indentation to indicate metrical units. In its first year alone, the poem went through three London editions and one Dublin edition.Paul Hammond, ''The Making of Restoration Poetry'' (D.S. Brewer, 2006), p. 150.

References

External links

''Threnodia Augustalis''
in ''The poetical works of John Dryden, with memoir and introduction to poems'' (ca. 1895), New York : T.Y. Crowell & Co., pp. 181–198 {{John Dryden Poetry by John Dryden Occasional poetry