The Threnodia Augustalis is a 517-line occasional poem written by 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...

 to commemorate the death of Charles II

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 in February 1685. The poem was "rushed into print" within a month. The title is a reference to the classical threnody

Threnody

A threnody is a song, hymn or poem of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person. The term originates from the Greek word threnoidia, from threnos + oide ; ultimately, from the Proto-Indo-European root wed- that is also the precursor of such words as "ode", "tragedy", "comedy",...

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

Augustus

Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...

" (see Augustan literature

Augustan literature

Augustan literature is a style of English literature produced during the reigns of Queen Anne, King George I, and George II on the 1740s with the deaths of Pope and Swift...

). 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

1685 in poetry

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Works published:-Great Britain:...

).

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

Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

 sentiment (stanza 10):

Freedom which in no other land will thrive,

Freedom an English subject's sole prerogative.

The Threnodia is marked by "the stately enthusiasm of the time," but also lends itself to charges of bathos

Bathos

Bathos is an abrupt transition in style from the exalted to the commonplace, producing a ludicrous effect. While often unintended, bathos may be used deliberately to produce a humorous effect. If bathos is overt, it may be described as Burlesque or mock-heroic...

. The English critic George Saintsbury

George Saintsbury

George Edward Bateman Saintsbury , was an English writer, literary historian, scholar and critic.-Biography:...

 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

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...

, that is, the structurally intricate poetry of the Greek lyric

Ancient Greek literature

Ancient Greek literature refers to literature written in the Ancient Greek language until the 4th century.- Classical and Pre-Classical Antiquity :...

 poet 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...

. 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.

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