Pindarics
Encyclopedia
Pindarics the name by which was known a class of loose and irregular ode
s greatly in fashion in England
during the close of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century. The invention is due to Abraham Cowley
, who, probably in Paris
, a place where he had no other books to direct him and perhaps in 1650, found a text of Pindar
and determined to imitate the Greek poetry in English
, without comprehension of the system upon which Pindar's prosody was built.
Cowley published, however, in 1656, fifteen Pindarique Odes, which became the model on which countless imitators founded their pindarics. The erroneous form of these poems, which were absolutely without discipline of structure, was first exposed by William Congreve, exactly half a century later; he very justly describing them as bundles of rambling incoherent thoughts, expressed in a like parcel of irregular stanza
s, which also consist of such another complication of disproportioned, uncertain and perplexed verse
s and rhyme
s. This is harsh, but it describes a pindaric with absolute justice. Cowley had not been aware that there is nothing more regular than the Odes of Pindar, and that his poems were constructed in harmony with rigid prosodical laws in strophe
, antistrophe
and epode
; the liberty which Pindar took in his numbers, which has been so much misunderstood and misapplied by his pretended imitators, was only in varying the stanzas in different odes; but in each particular ode they are ever correspondent one to another in their turns, and according to the order of the ode.
These critical remarks were made by Congreve in his Discourse on the Piudarique Ode of 1706, and from that date forward the use of pindarics ceased to be so lax and frantic as it had been during the previous fifty years. The time had now passed in which such a critic as Thomas Sprat
could praise this loose and unconfined measure as having all the grace and harmony of the most confined. It began to be felt that the English pindaric was a blunder founded upon a misconception. If we examine Cowley's Resurrection, which was considered in the 17th century to be a model of the style, and truly pindarical, we find it to be a shapeless poem of sixty-four lines, arbitrarily divided, not into strophes, but into four stanzas of unequal volume and structure; the lines which form these stanzas are of lengths varying from three feet
to seven feet, with rhymes repeated in willful disorder, the whole forming a mere vague caricature of Pindar's brilliant odes. The very laxity of these pindarics attracted the poets of the unlyrical close of the 17th century, and they served the purpose not only of John Dryden
and Alexander Pope
, but of a score of lesser poets, among whom John Oldham
, Aphra Behn
, Thomas Otway
, Sprat, Thomas Flatman
and many others were prominent.
The pindaric became the almost necessary form in which to indite a poem of compliment on a birth, a wedding or a funeral. Although the vogue of these forms hardly survived the age of Queen Anne
, something of the vicious tradition of them still remained, and even in the odes of Wordsworth
, Shelley
and Coleridge
the broken versification of Cowley's pindarics occasionally survives. Tennyson
's Ode on the Death of the Arthur Wellesley
ි, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]] (1852) is the latest important specimen of a pindaric in English literature (as of 1911).
Ode
Ode is a type of lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also exist...
s greatly in fashion in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
during the close of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century. The invention is due to Abraham Cowley
Abraham Cowley
Abraham Cowley was an English poet born in the City of London late in 1618. He was one of the leading English poets of the 17th century, with 14 printings of his Works published between 1668 and 1721.-Early life and career:...
, who, probably in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, a place where he had no other books to direct him and perhaps in 1650, found a text of Pindar
Pindar
Pindar , was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian described him as "by far the greatest of the nine lyric poets, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich...
and determined to imitate the Greek poetry in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, without comprehension of the system upon which Pindar's prosody was built.
Cowley published, however, in 1656, fifteen Pindarique Odes, which became the model on which countless imitators founded their pindarics. The erroneous form of these poems, which were absolutely without discipline of structure, was first exposed by William Congreve, exactly half a century later; he very justly describing them as bundles of rambling incoherent thoughts, expressed in a like parcel of irregular stanza
Stanza
In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...
s, which also consist of such another complication of disproportioned, uncertain and perplexed verse
Verse (poetry)
A verse is formally a single line in a metrical composition, e.g. poetry. However, the word has come to represent any division or grouping of words in such a composition, which traditionally had been referred to as a stanza....
s and rhyme
Rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used in poetry and songs. The word "rhyme" may also refer to a short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such as nursery rhymes.-Etymology:...
s. This is harsh, but it describes a pindaric with absolute justice. Cowley had not been aware that there is nothing more regular than the Odes of Pindar, and that his poems were constructed in harmony with rigid prosodical laws in strophe
Strophe
A strophe forms the first part of the ode in Ancient Greek tragedy, followed by the antistrophe and epode. In its original Greek setting, "strophe, antistrophe and epode were a kind of stanza framed only for the music," as John Milton wrote in the preface to Samson Agonistes, with the strophe...
, antistrophe
Antistrophe
Antistrophe is the portion of an ode sung by the chorus in its returning movement from west to east, in response to the strophe, which was sung from east to west.It has the nature of a reply and balances the effect of the strophe...
and epode
Epode
Epode, in verse, is the third part of an ode, which followed the strophe and the antistrophe, and completed the movement.At a certain point in time the choirs, which had previously chanted to right of the altar or stage, and then to left of it, combined and sang in unison, or permitted the...
; the liberty which Pindar took in his numbers, which has been so much misunderstood and misapplied by his pretended imitators, was only in varying the stanzas in different odes; but in each particular ode they are ever correspondent one to another in their turns, and according to the order of the ode.
These critical remarks were made by Congreve in his Discourse on the Piudarique Ode of 1706, and from that date forward the use of pindarics ceased to be so lax and frantic as it had been during the previous fifty years. The time had now passed in which such a critic as Thomas Sprat
Thomas Sprat
Thomas Sprat , English divine, was born at Beaminster, Dorset, and educated at Wadham College, Oxford, where he held a fellowship from 1657 to 1670.Having taken orders he became a prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral in 1660...
could praise this loose and unconfined measure as having all the grace and harmony of the most confined. It began to be felt that the English pindaric was a blunder founded upon a misconception. If we examine Cowley's Resurrection, which was considered in the 17th century to be a model of the style, and truly pindarical, we find it to be a shapeless poem of sixty-four lines, arbitrarily divided, not into strophes, but into four stanzas of unequal volume and structure; the lines which form these stanzas are of lengths varying from three feet
Foot (prosody)
The foot is the basic metrical unit that generates a line of verse in most Western traditions of poetry, including English accentual-syllabic verse and the quantitative meter of classical ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The unit is composed of syllables, the number of which is limited, with a few...
to seven feet, with rhymes repeated in willful disorder, the whole forming a mere vague caricature of Pindar's brilliant odes. The very laxity of these pindarics attracted the poets of the unlyrical close of the 17th century, and they served the purpose not only of John Dryden
John Dryden
John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
and Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
, but of a score of lesser poets, among whom John Oldham
John Oldham (poet)
John Oldham was an English satirical poet and translator.-Life and work:Oldham was born in Shipton Moyne, Gloucestershire, the son of John Oldham, a non-conformist minister, and grandson of John Oldham the staunch anti-papist rector of Shipton Moyne and before that of Long Newton in Wiltshire...
, Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the English Restoration and was one of the first English professional female writers. Her writing contributed to the amatory fiction genre of British literature.-Early life:...
, Thomas Otway
Thomas Otway
Thomas Otway was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for Venice Preserv'd, or A Plot Discover'd .-Life:...
, Sprat, Thomas Flatman
Thomas Flatman
Thomas Flatman was an English poet and miniature painter. There were several editions of his Poems and Songs . One of his self-portraits is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. A portrait of Charles II is in the Wallace Collection, London...
and many others were prominent.
The pindaric became the almost necessary form in which to indite a poem of compliment on a birth, a wedding or a funeral. Although the vogue of these forms hardly survived the age of Queen Anne
Anne of Great Britain
Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the...
, something of the vicious tradition of them still remained, and even in the odes of Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
, Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
and Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
the broken versification of Cowley's pindarics occasionally survives. Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....
's Ode on the Death of the Arthur Wellesley
Arthur Wellesley
Arthur Wellesley may refer to:*Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington , Anglo-Irish soldier and statesman*Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington , British soldier and nobleman...
ි, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]] (1852) is the latest important specimen of a pindaric in English literature (as of 1911).