The ''Threnodia Augustalis'' is a 517-line
occasional poem 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 ...
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 ᾠ ...
, a poem of mourning, and to Charles as a "new
Augustus
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...
" (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, a ...
). 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 or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...
sentiment (stanza 10):
The ''Threnodia'' is marked by "the stately enthusiasm of the time," but also lends itself to charges of
bathos
Bathos ( ;''Oxford English Dictionary'', 1st ed. "bathos, ''n.'' Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1885. , "depth") is a literary term, first used in this sense in Alexander Pope's 1727 essay " Peri Bathous", to describe an amusingly ...
. 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 cent ...
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 ) is a type of lyric poetry, with its origins in Ancient Greece. Odes are elaborately structured poems praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structu ...
, that is, the structurally intricate poetry of the
Greek lyric
Greek lyric is the body of lyric poetry written in dialects of Ancient Greek.
Lyric poetry is, in short, poetry to be sung accompanied by music, traditionally a lyre.
It is primarily associated with the early 7th to the early 5th centuries BC, s ...
poet
Pindar
Pindar (; ; ; ) was an Greek lyric, Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes, Greece, Thebes. Of the Western canon, 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