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Pindaric Ode
2
Founded?
Pindar
- The Pindaric is named for the ancient Greek poet Pindar, who is credited with inventing the ode.
- Pindaric odes were performed with a chorus and dancers, and often composed to celebrate athletic victories.
What are their characteristics?
They contain...
- Three Sections
- Irregular line lengths
- Irregular rhyme patterns
A Pindaric Ode
By Ben Jonson
What is a Pindaric Ode?
TO THE IMMORTAL MEMORY AND FRIENDSHIP OF THAT NOBLE PAIR, SIR LUCIUS CARY AND SIR H. MORISON
THE TURN
Brave infant of Saguntum, clear
Thy coming forth in that great year,
When the prodigious Hannibal did crown
His rage with razing your immortal town.
Thou looking then about,
Ere thou wert half got out,
Wise child, didst hastily return,
And mad'st thy mother's womb thine urn.
How summ'd a circle didst thou leave mankind
Of deepest lore, could we the centre find!
THE COUNTER-TURN
Did wiser nature draw thee back,
From out the horror of that sack;
Where shame, faith, honour, and regard of right,
Lay trampled on? The deeds of death and night
Urg'd, hurried forth, and hurl'd
Upon th' affrighted world;
Sword, fire and famine with fell fury met,
And all on utmost ruin set:
As, could they but life's miseries foresee,
No doubt all infants would return like thee.
THE STAND
For what is life, if measur'd by the space,
Not by the act?
Or masked man, if valu'd by his face,
Above his fact?
Here's one outliv'd his peers
And told forth fourscore years:
He vexed time, and busied the whole state;
Troubled both foes and friends;
But ever to no ends:
What did this stirrer but die late?
How well at twenty had he fall'n or stood!
For three of his four score he did no good.
- "Ode" comes from the Greek aeidein, meaning to sing or chant.
- As one of three types of Odes, the Pindaric Ode has a very complex structure.