The Progress of Poesy: A Pindaric Ode

“First Olympian” by Pindar (476 B.C.E.)

Pindar, for whom the Pindaric Ode is named, is one of the greatest ancient Greek poets. This ode is one of 45 surviving odes of victory he wrote in celebration of the ancient Olympic games. This, like Gray’s conception of poetry more generally, is intimately connected to music and was intended to be sung by choirs to celebrate individual athletes. Though Pindar’s themes and tone differ from those of Gray’s work, the epigraph from “The Progress of Poesy” is drawn from Pindar’s Olympian poems. Translated by Ambrose Phillips in 1748, a contemporary to Gray, this particular version also gives a sense of English Pindaric interpretations.

“Mac Flecknoe” by John Dryden (1682)

John Dryden is perhaps the most celebrated of the Augustan poets that came before Gray. A master of satire, heroic couplets, and classical allusion, Dryden appears in Gray’s “The Progress of Poesy” as evidence that the Muses have taken up residence in England (Line 103). “Mac Flecknoe” is one of Dryden’s most famous works and is initiative of his poetic style. Though Dryden’s style—particularly in it’s lighthearted, satirical tone—differs drastically from Gray’s, his mastery of the medium speaks for itself.