Discuss, in your own words, Dryden as a great poet of his age.

Ans.

Dryden is a great literary figure of Restoration. He represents two different ages the age of Milton and the age of Pope. Before Dryden there was a change from romantic to classical manner. In his work he established this trend fully. He may be said a fore-runner of the eighteenth century classical poetry. He was such a great writer and poet as he got success in several branches of writing. In verse style he is unique. He was a master of metre. As a writer of ode, his standing is very high. As a translator he is good enough. By all means he is a master-craftsman. He is also brilliant in composition of heroic couplets. In his ‘Absalom and Achitophel’ his versification is praiseworthy and remarkable. He established heroic couplet as the art for satire, didactic and descriptive poetry. He held the position of a dictator in literary circles like Pope, Johnson and Tennyson. T. S. Eliot and Bonamy Dobree paid a glowing tribute to Dryden. Oliver Elton rightly observes in ‘English Muse”. “If we close our Milton and at once open our Dryden, we shall do Dryden wrongly; the text of a contrast is too easy to embroider. But turn back to him from Pope, and his magnitude is seen at once.”

Dryden’s poetical ability

Dryden possessed a great quality that can be seen in his productions. His ability to make the small into the great, the prosaic into the poetic and the trivial into the magnificent is the most remarkable factor of his wisdom and intellectuality. We can experience this capacity of his literary personality in the following lines:

Three poets in three distant ages born

Greece, Italy and England, did adorn

Dryden’s literary wisdom makes a journey into three periods. The first ending with 1681, was mainly the period of dramas. People were very much interested in watching different characters on the stage. Dryden noted it and devoted himself to writing plays. He had to write according to the taste of audience. And he wrote about twenty dramas. Out of them the best are his heroic plays such as ‘The Indian Emperor’ and ‘The Conquest of Granada” and so on. The second period from 1681 to the Revolution brought the publication of all his greatest works. The third period, from 1689 to his death, was the period of his miscellaneous productions-fables, translations, elegies, couplets etc. His three masterpiece productions-Absalom and Achitophel. The Medal and MacFlecknoe came into existence within a period of twelve months (1681-82). These three productions earned a great name and fame for him. They are indisputably masterpieces of English satire. Dryden is the greatest satirist in English verse.

His form

As regards the form, few major poets have maintained such strict uniformity as Dryden. He is seen quite successful in writing heroic couplets. He also wrote lyrics in his dramas, several odes, two early poems in the heroic stanza and the blank verse in ‘All for Love’. His couplets. songs and odes scattered in his drama show that he possessed power over a variety of metres. He also wrote satires very successfully. His satirical comments run in the form of his verse. His Absalom and Achitophel is a great satirical poem.

As a lyric poet

Some fine lyrics are found in Dryden’s dramas. His elegic odes and his odes on St. Celilia are noticeable in this respect. And Dryden proves himself as one of the glories of English poetry.

Dryden experimented lyric form in order to give vent to his feeling made melancholic by the death of some good men. Often he is in pathetic stream while writing his lyrics. His elegy on Mrs. Killigrew is full of melancholy-inspired blessings.

Dryden as the representative of his age

When we go through the works of Dryden we come to this fact that no one in the circle of English literature is more representative of his age than Dryden. As E. E. Keller observes, “Above all, he has a representative character.” His representative character comes out from coffee house where he was often seen making personal contacts with the literary and common people. He talked and talked endlessly on several topics. They might be political, social and the intellectual problems of the age. Actually he had lived in his age.