Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T15:30:42.807Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - The return to the ode

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2006

John Sitter
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
Get access

Summary

But if I may be allowed to speak my mind modestly, and without injury to his [Cowley’s] sacred ashes, somewhat of the purity of English, somewhat of more equal thoughts, somewhat of sweetness in the numbers, in one word, somewhat of a finer turn and more lyrical verse, is yet wanting.

John Dryden, “Preface to Sylvæ

In December 1746, Joseph Warton published Odes on Various Subjects, and later in the same month his friend William Collins published Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegoric Subjects. Joseph Warton, in his “Advertisement” introducing his odes, urged readers to look upon these poems “as an attempt to bring back Poetry into its right channel.” These odes were examples of “invention” and “imagination”; and they were his effort to restore British poetry to its classical heritage. The “Advertisement” read as follows:

The Public has been so much accustom’d of late to didactic Poetry alone, and Essays on moral Subjects, that any work where the imagination is much indulged, will perhaps not be relished or regarded. The author therefore of these pieces is in some pain least certain austere critics should think them too fanciful and descriptive. But as he is convinced that the fashion of moralizing in verse has been carried too far, and as he looks upon Invention and Imagination to be the chief faculties of a Poet, so he will be happy if the following Odes may be look’d upon as an attempt to bring back Poetry into its right channel.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • The return to the ode
  • Edited by John Sitter, Emory University, Atlanta
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Poetry
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521650909.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • The return to the ode
  • Edited by John Sitter, Emory University, Atlanta
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Poetry
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521650909.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The return to the ode
  • Edited by John Sitter, Emory University, Atlanta
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Poetry
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521650909.010
Available formats
×