The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1876-12-23
cowley,s Pindarique odes.

In publishing these oues GoWley Pe[:
formed a dangerous Innovation; nothlhg
at all like these pQmpous lyrics ~ Gs1S
lbres had hitherto beeu attempted or
Suggested in English. In his preface he
ackno wledged tbs with aIpr0nd humll-
ity characteristic OF the man II am IN
great doubt whether they Will be UNDER
stood by most readers, nay, even ny very
many who are we'll enough acquainted
with the common roads ana ordinary
tracks of poesy. The figures are unusual
and bold even to temerity, ana sucn as 4
burst not have to do Witnal IN any ofher
kind OF poetry; the NUMBERS are va
rious and irregular, and sometimes, es=
pecially some ot tne long ones, seem
harsh and uncoutb, il the just measures
and cadences be not observed in the
pronunciation. So that almost all their
sweetness and numerosiLy, which ls to
be found, If mistake not, in the rough
est, il rightly repeated, lies in manner
wholly at the mercy o. the reader" The
readers of the day were very mercllul or
very uncritical, for it was chiefly on the
score OF those ranc0ns odes thai so many
sweet words were said about "the ma
iestick numbers of Mr.. Cowley"
TAey became the rage, and founded a
whole school of imlLators. Bishop
Sprat states in his Life Of Cowley that
the poet WAS set thinking on this style
oI poetry by finding himself with the
works OF Pindar in aplace where there
were no other books. Ii seems likely
mat this place was Jersey or some other
temporary station Of exile, while his
hnadouarters were at Paris. The fash
ion of irregular inflated verse OF a rhe-
tnrical character was just coming into
fashion in France. Although condemned
hv Roileau, it was frequently practiced
~ Corneille, anu still more charaeteris-
tically in tue last years of Gowley's
life by Racine in Esther and Athali e..
But to Cowley is due the praise OF IN
producing a style or ode which was a
new thing in modern literature, and
which took firm held OF cur poetry until,
in Collins, it received its apotheosis anu
its death-UloW.
After hundred years appeared the
Pipdarie OIes OF Gray, the last and
greatest follower OF COWley. But though
the chaster form Of ode designed by Col
Inns from Greek model has ever since
his day ruled iu our poetic arr, there has
always been a tendency to return to the
old standard of CoWley. AS lately as
our own day Mr.. LowelPs Commemora-
tion Ode il II specimen of the formless
poem of unequal lines anu broken stan
zas supposed TO be IN the manner OF
Pindar, but truly the descendant OF our
royalist poets "majestick numbersn
Keats, shelley and Swinburne, on the
other hand, have restored to the ode its
harmony and shapellness.
Until the days of Collins, however, the
ode modelled upon CoWley was not only
the universal medium for congratulatory
lyrics and pompOus occasionat pieces,
but it was almost the only variety per-
mitted to the melancholy generation 5
over whom the heroic couplgt reigned
supreme. Dryden, whose "5Ong on ST..
Cecilias Day" directly initiates Cow
iev's code on The Resurrection" used ii
with grand effect for his rolling orgar-
music. The forgotten lyrists OF the r g.
toratiOn found 1T peculiarly convenient
instrument in their bound and intieXib e
fingers. Pope only once seriously d.
verged from the inevitable cOupIet, ana
then to adopt the ode-lorm OF Cowiey.
Yet so rapid y had the fame Of the latter
declined that Pope could ask, in 1871,
Who now reads Coweyb If he pleases yet,
His moral pltases, not his pointed wit;
ForgoC his Epic, nay, PIndaric art, ~.
But still love the language of his heart
The language OF the heart has not much
to do with the 0des oil 1856. They are
fifteen in number, and open with two
paraphrases ol PlndaT himself, the sec
ond Olympic and the first Nemean. Fol-
lowing these Is a praise OF "PIndar'5
Unnayfgable Song" in Imitation Of
Horace. The remaining twelve are sup
posed to be original, but two are taken
from the prophetic Scriptures.-[C Cornhill
Magazine. -