- mock epic
- Dryden attacks his contemporary Thomas Shadwell in heroic couplets
"All human things are subject to decay,
And when fate summons, monarchs must obey.
This Flecknoe found, who, like Augustus, young
Was called to empire, and had governed long.."
"Absalom and Achitophel"
- a political allegory that uses biblical figures and events to stand in for a political crisis current during Dryden's time
- names: Absalom, Achitophel, King David
"In pious times, ere priestcraft did begin,
Before polygamy was made a sin;
When man on many multiplied his kind,
Ere one to one was cursedly confined;
When nature prompted and no law denied
Promiscuous use of concubine and bride;
Then Israel's monarch after Heaven's own heart,
His vigorous warmth did variously impart
To wives and slaves; and, wide as his command,
Scattered his Maker's image through the land...
If all this numerous progeny was none
So beautiful, so brave, as Absalom:..."
All For Love
- Dryden's tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra
- often compared to Shakespeare's version, but Dryden's offers a greater degree of emotional intensity and insight
- explores the clash between the personal and the political
"Epigram on Milton"
The three poets refer to Homer, Virgil and Milton.
"Three poets, in three distant ages born,
Greece, Italy, and England did adorn.
The first in loftiness of thought surpassed;
The next, in majesty; in both the last.
The force of Nature could no further go.
To make a third, she joined the former two."
"A Song for St. Cecilia's Day"
"From harmony, from Heav'nly harmony
This universal frame began.
When Nature underneath a heap
Of jarring atoms lay,
And could not heave her head,
The tuneful voice was heard from high,
Arise ye more than dead.
Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry,
In order to their stations leap,
And music's pow'r obey.
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