The Progress of Poesy: A Pindaric Ode

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1757

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Related Poems

“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.

“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray (1751)

“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, Gray’s most famous poem, is singularly responsible for his fame and popularity. “Country Churchyard” is also one of Gray’s most accessible poems and serves as a worthy introduction to the themes and ideas he explores throughout his published works. Like “The Progress of Poesy”, this earlier poem is focused on how the past interacts and engages with the present.

“The Deserted Village” by Oliver Goldsmith (1770)

Oliver Goldsmith was an Irish poet who wrote in English around the same time as Gray. “The Deserted Village” perhaps shares more themes and characteristics with Country Churchyard than with “The Progress of Poesy”, placing emphasis on the recent past and ideas of human mortality. These focuses place Goldsmith and Gray among the “Graveyard poets,” a small school of 18th century poets that wrote grim, emotionally charged verse. Though critics rarely consider this a legitimate school of poetry, works like “The Deserted Village” and “The Progress of Poesy” give a sense of the kind of poetry written between the Augustan and Romantic eras.

“Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats (1819)

Written in a less strict ode form that would come to characterize the mode during the Romantic era, John Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” deals with many of the same themes and issues that Gray raises in his poem. Keats’s Grecian urn, like Gray’s Muses, marks a throughline that connects ancient Greek and contemporary English poetry. Keats’s poetry also stands as an exemplar of the Romantic era poetry that Gray’s work inspired. It is also reasonable to assume that Keats’s urn is similar to Fancy’s urn in Gray’s final stanza: “Scatters from her pictur’d urn / Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn” (Line 109-110).

Further Literary Resources

The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift (1704)

“The Progress of Poesy” not only looks forward to the Romantic era, it also draws from a wealth of literary discussions during the early 18th century. One of the main disputes among the Augustan poets was whether contemporary or ancient literature is superior. This satire by Jonathan Swift envisions that dispute as a war between ancient and contemporary literary figures. Like Gray, Swift acknowledges the debt that western literature owes to ancient authors. Swift, however, suggests that the trajectory of literary quality is ever downward, while Gray remains more optimistic.

Preface to Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth (1800)

William Wordsworth’s preface to Lyrical Ballads is a good encapsulation of the Romantic era’s aims and values. Many of the principles Wordsworth lays out as central to the developing form of poetry also resonate with Gray’s works. In particular, Wordsworth views good poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (Para. 6). This emphasis on human emotion is one reason Gray is often interpreted as a pre-Romantic figure, despite Wordsworth criticizing Gray’s 1775 "Sonnet on the Death of Richard West" in his preface.

“Unpranked Lyre” by John Mullan (2001)

This review of Robert Mack’s 2000 biography of Thomas Gray, Thomas Gray: A Life, provides a succinct account of Gray’s life and poetic legacy. From General Wolfe, who read Gray aloud to his men during the capture of Quebec in 1759, to modern readers who stumble on Gray’s difficulty and apparent stiffness, John Mullan covers the long history of Gray scholarship, reception, and speculation.

“The Muses” by The Editors of GreekMythology.com (2018)

Gray’s Progress of Poesy borrows heavily from ancient Greek and Roman mythology. Chief among the figures mentioned in Gray’s poem are the Muses, who the speaker represents as inspiring poetry and song for over two thousand years. This resource identifies some of the Muses and important locations that Gray mentions in his poem. The website also provides a further list of figures on the right-hand side with links to pages with information on other figures in the poem, albeit by their Greek, rather than Latin, names.

Listen to Poem

Clarica reads “The Progress of Poesy” by Thomas Gray

Clarica of Poetry Moment provides a clear and articulate reading of Gray’s Progress of Poesy. This reading places a particular emphasis on the work’s iambic tetrameter, pentameter, and rhyming line ends, giving a good sense of the poem’s form.