The Impossible Tradition of the Pindaric Ode in England

The “burden of the past” (W. J. Bate) has persistently remained in the focus of poets’ attention across various periods of the history of Western poetry. Questions of tradition, historical belatedness, and “anxieti[es] of influence” (H. Bloom) have fueled both theorists and practitioners of poetry. The English Pindaric tradition confronts these questions uniquely. It has shown consciousness of its own historicity from the beginning. The vocation of the Pindaric poet and his relation to the inimitable master, Pindar, persist as central themes throughout the reception history. They contribute to the evolution of a tradition where poets increasingly question the possibility of autonomous poetic creation.