Dryden and the Cultivation of the Restoration Pindaric Ode

This chapter traces Dryden’s responses to the development of the Restoration Pindaric ode. In Renaissance Europe, Pindar’s Greek odes were commonly seen as examples of inspired poetry. Abraham Cowley’s vernacular odes echoed and modified this tradition by presenting irregular Pindaric metre and form as a vehicle for paraphrasing biblical scripture. The chapter sees how Dryden thought through this link between inspiration and the Pindaric in odes including ‘To the Memory of Anne Killigrew’ and ‘An Ode for Secelia’s Day’. The heavenly origins of music and its ability to provoke the passions were central to Dryden’s adaptation of the form’s inspired heritage. Such ideas developed politicized associations with military violence after William III came to the throne in 1689. The chapter argues that Dryden’s late ode ‘Alexander’s Feast’ is engaged in a close, critical conversation with Williamite sublime poetics as practised especially by John Dennis.