The Progress of Poesy: A Pindaric Ode

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1757

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“The Progress of Poesy” is one of the most well-known Pindaric odes in the English language. Though the form is fairly loose in English, due to the difficulty of translating ancient Greek meter and cadences into another language, the Pindaric ode must include three sections called the strophe, antistrophe, and epode. Each of Gray’s sections consist of three stanzas of 12, 12, and 17 lines. The two first two stanzas of each section follow and irregular ABBACCDDEEFF rhyme scheme, while the concluding stanza of each section follows an irregular AABBACCDEDEFGFGHH rhyme scheme. The poem’s meter is also irregular and shifts between iambic tetrameter (four feet of two syllables in a unstressed, stressed pattern) and iambic pentameter (five of the same unstressed, stressed feet). Some of Gray’s lines, such as “Slow melting strains their Queen’s approach declare” (Line 36), attempt to mimic the ancient Greek rhythmic use of repeated consonant and vowel (assonant) sounds.

The strophe, in a Greek ode, establishes the poem’s themes and conceits. In some traditions, the strophe can consist of two or more lines that recur throughout the poem. This is rarely the case in Pindaric odes, however. The antistrope, the second section of a Greek ode, provides counterbalance to the work’s themes, such as when Gray’s speaker turns from the Gods’ divine reveling to “Man’s feeble race” (Line 42). The epode, the third section, summarizes and concludes the ode’s ideas and themes. Typically, an epode has different formal characteristics than the previous two sections. Gray appears to reflect this tradition within individual sections, where the final stanza is 17 lines rather than 12 but not in the poem as a whole. In ancient Greece, Pindaric odes were accompanied by music and dance. A chorus would move from one side of the stage to the other as they performed the strophe and antistophe and perform the epode at the stage’s center.

Allusion

Gray’s Pindaric odes are incredibly dense with allusions, or references to classical, biblical, and more contemporary texts. The speaker uses these allusions to give the work a rich symbolic depth (See: Symbols & Motifs) without over explanation. Since the speaker is also making large claims about poetry and its role in human history, theology, and culture, allusions also work as a rhetorical appeal to authority, much as citations work in modern argumentative essays.

By providing a wealth of references to a wide body of relevant literature, Gray not only asserts his own authority as a well-read scholar but brings other respected authorities into the discussion to prove his point. This rhetorical intention is most obvious in Gray’s decision to include ancient Greek and Latin quotes in the work’s epigraph and footnotes, respectively. By providing these quotes untranslated, Gray demonstrates his ability to access and engage with important primary texts.

Gray’s allusions are too numerous to list in their entirety. In Line 106, Dryden’s horses and their “necks in thunder cloth’d” refer both to Plato (See: Analysis) and to the Old Testament (The Book of Job, 39.19). Similarly, Line 54, “In Climes beyond the solar road,” is an amalgamation of a line from Virgil(Aeneid, 19 B.C.E., vi.796) and one from Petrarch (Canzone II, 1327, I.48).

Heightened Language

Gray often uses the Latinate, Roman names for Greek mythological beings. Though the speaker refers to the Muses, “Hyperion” (Line 53), and Aeolus (Line 1) with their Greek names, he refers to many other gods, most notably “Jove” (Line 47), using their Roman names. Some gods are connected to both their Greek and Roman identity. Hyperion’s “solar road” (Line 54), for instance, refers to his identity as “Sol.”

This mismatch of pantheons and languages serves a number of different purposes. Most notably, the juxtaposition of the two works to reinforce the continuity between Greek and Roman culture. It also serves to connect England to Greece through the use of the ancient Greek word for England, “Albion” (Line 82). Gray’s diction, more generally, employs Latinate language alongside Anglo-Saxon words to elevate the lines to a more formal, educated pitch. Though knowledge of any ancient language was a sign of higher education in Gray’s contemporary England, Latin was generally valued higher than Greek. This preference is due to the fact that most universities taught primarily from Latin texts and that Latin was required to enter service of the Catholic church.