1 Edmund W. Gosse

CONTENTS. S fi nsar I . Epithalamion j e Himself I I. To II To Mas er An hon S afford Rando l k I . t t y t p ’ IV On the M orn in of hrist s . g C Nativi ty m V . On Ti e VI . At a Solemn Musi c . The Praise f Pin VI I . o dar h ’ VI I I . C rist s Passion Cowley ’ ! n r mwe I . Upo C o ll s Return from Ireland ! . To the Pio us Memory of Mrs. Dryden ’ For St . Ce cilia s Day Dryden ’ Ale xan der s Feas t For Music On Nothin g de s O , n r la Pris e de Namur, ' l An née 1692 An Ode on the Taking of N ' amul , 1695 0 3 V’N m “ 5 42 4 a 5 45“ vi CONTENTS. l PAG E I Mrs Arabella Hun n . XV . O t, r n XVI I . O n the Sp i g I I I The Pro ress of Poes XV . g y o I The Bard X X . ! ! . The Passion s X I To Eve n in X . g On the Po ular u i XXI I . p S perstit ons of the Highlan ds of Scot lan d Lea H ll XXI I I . O n vin g o an d I The First of A ril XX V. p B adicea XXV . o In Imitation o f Al us !XVI . cae X I I . In ima io n s of Immortalit XV t t y, from Recollections of Early Childhood X I I I To D u t XV . y s XXIX . To Lycori Fr XXX . an ce T l in XXXI . o an Indian Go d Co I I To os e h Able tt L ande r XXX . J p I I I To Win e r XXX . t X I n i e B r on XX V . O Ven c y T e Win d XXXV. o the W st T k lar XXXVI . o a S y k T XXXVI I . o Libe rty T TS VII CON EN . XXXVIII . To Naples Ni h in l To a. a e XXXIX . g t g ! L O n a Gr e cian Urn ! LI To Psyche To Au u mn K eats XLI I . t XLI I I M elan choly XLIV T o M e mory ! LV On the D eat h o f the D uke o f We llington XLVI T o the Un kn own Ero s XLVII To Victor Hugo i n Ex i le INTRODUCTION. T is from the triumphal poems of Pindar that wé receive the impression that an o de must belong to an o f enthusiastic and elevated order writing. There is nothing in Greek literature to warrant this supposition ode dw an , from q , to sing, was simply a chant, a poem arranged to be sung to an instrumental accompan i o f versification IS at ment . The origin Greek a subj ect W f n ot tended ith great di ficulty and a little uncertainty, but the consensus of the best scholarship is in favour of a r r ve y rapid development from the ea liest form pi gtrgphe, r the regular distich , to the complete poem . A chilochus, it r would seem, set ly ical poetry in movement by giving s elegiac variety to the di tich, and by expanding it into an . lc epode A man went further still, and was the first to gather together his diffuse numbers into an elaborate car ' men ode of n , or . The form ly c verse so invented took two a directions . In the hands of Sappho and Alc eus it became - w o moulded into certain simple, but highly rought, mel dic n systems, and grew simpler still as it passed to A acreon f od and the lesser ZEolian poets . This slighter form o e is what we generally call the Horatian , because the Greek IN OD UCTI ON' TR . r r originals , which are known to us only in f agments, we e or ff o familiar to H ace, and by him a ecti nately studied and i . o r or o Stesi ch o ru s rev ved On the the hand , a D ian p et, , improved o n the ode o f Alcman by elabo rating a triple stra /re an i istr o ke co movement, p answered by p and ncluded e ode. S r a by the p imonides went fu ther still, and dapted this elaborate ode - fo rm to the newly -i nvented Do rian Ter an der r m a music, which p and the othe Lesbian usici ns had created by grafting their soft Lydian airs u po n the o N o rough stock of Doric popular mel dies . o so ner had the musical and poetical art o f Greece thus r eached its o o r perfecti n, than Pindar arrived with his inc mpa able r all genius, to exercise it in all its g ace and its maj esty . It is incorrect to think of a Greek o de without remember ing that it was always acco mpanied by that vi rile ” r o f o c Dorian ha mony, which Plat speaks in the La /233, the first tones o f which set the bloo d of the athlete fle e t n ing through his vei s, and nerved his whole body with ambition . The character and form o f the ode depended on the cal an imen t a a mgsj acg , although this was lw ys suhsi pfim hp n diary to the volume . Pindar speaks in o e a o f of fo r o d pl ce a new sort music invented the e in hand . M o st o des were fitted fo r both W ind and stringed i n stru ments etiquette stepped in and provided the flute alo ne o o in hymns to Cybele, and n thing but the majestic ph r m was minx when Apollo was celebrated . When the poe N I TR OD UCTION. to be chanted in a moving procession, the epode seems to of o de have been omitted . But the as written in its full r r m on e va iety by its g eatest aster, we can do little but c j c ’ r r ar t/i m am or r St alin tu e . Pinda s p , odes for vi gins, his , o r u r c r of gen ine dithy ambi odes in p aise Dionysos, his m o enco iastic des , and all his other lyrical repertory, have r o m o f o r pe ished , and we only p ssess so e his e ac the 1t 0 o f i . , a d h separa act metr cal. in enuity _ s g of o . of n r o f rm The odes Pi da , so far fr m being, as used r o r to be supposed, utte ly licenti us in their ir egularity , are ’ ‘ smore like the can zos and szrw n fas o f the mediaeval Trou ba ur r do s than any modern verse . In each case the appa ent looseness and actual rigidity of form depend upon the exi ’ en ci e s o f 1 i g the mus c, which strained the poet s art to ts 7 m r hi o . utmost, yet never released f m its bondage At the revival o f learning the rules o f Greek versifica r r l r o r tion we e ve y dim y unde stood , not understood at x r r all, e cept whe e they we e illustrated by Roman practice . Hence the humanist poets contented themselves with r o r ZEo lian w iting des, even in G eek, in those simpler o o f measures, the f rm which Catullus and Horace had r clea ly taught them . Pindar was recovered, indeed, b ut recovered in such confusion that it was left for Boe ckh o f o , a scholar the present century, t unwind x ii IN TR OD UC TION. In lan his tangled strophes and antistrophes . the living r guages, Italian was al eady well provided with stately r r o f ly ical fo ms o f verse, the heritage to her the Middle r r o Ages, and it was in F ench that the fi st modern des r r 0 o r o r l we e w itten . In I 55 R nsa d published his igina o a c collecti n , with a qu int essay, in whi h he distinctly p o inted to Pindar and the Greeks as the source o f his are r c inspiration. His odes, indeed , singula ly corre t , o o orm ro and even mon t nous, in f ; strophe , antist phe and o o r r a o to epode f llowing in due de , without ttenti n what o m o r r a o o f o f is alm st as i p tant, the va i ti n the length r a . o diffe ent lines in each st nza Having justified, h wever, o f r u ar r o by fifteen these eg l pieces, his dete minati n to i ” le m o v n ar a i n show yen de sui re Pi d e, he l psed into o for r r o r m o f d lence the est of his life, and w te ea s poems “ ” r c r that were only odes by c iti al cou tesy.

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