The Classical panegyric ode, disseminated and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance, was transformed in England around 1600, becoming the verse-form of choice to reflect and influence...Show moreThe Classical panegyric ode, disseminated and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance, was transformed in England around 1600, becoming the verse-form of choice to reflect and influence the politics of national, monarchical, ideological, religious, and personal issues until its demise around 1700. This essay will examine the classical roots of the ode, its transmission northwards during the Renaissance, the adaptations it underwent once imported into England, and how it was deployed as a vessel for political intervention throughout the century. Naturally, moments of great change and political uncertainty – a monarch’s death, a revolution, a counter-revolution, a foreign coup – are when politics come even more to the fore. These four moments of fundamental change form the framework of the overview, and by examining some representative odes from these four key periods of political change across the century, and linking those texts to the particular issues of the moment, this essay illustrates how the ode-form, once established, quickly became a standard vessel for this kind of poetic, opinion-driven expression. The ode-form, thus pressed into political service, developed recognisable and relatively predictable features during the first half of the century. This established ‘classical,’ mid-century form – adjusted, adapted and reshaped by Cowley, chiefly, but wholly retentive of the ‘spirit’ of the Classical poets – was then employed throughout the Restoration until the relative stability of the Glorious Revolution rendered it less necessary. In fact – so recognisable and entrenched had it become by then – the form itself was even undermined by one of its most prominent exponents, reflecting a general depoliticization towards the turn of the eighteenth century.Show less
