Academic literature on the topic 'Mock-heroic poem, digressive poem'

The decades between 1730 and 1770 witnessed the publication of a large number of mock-heroic epic poems, in many cases inspired by Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock (1712–1717). One of the most successful products of this trend was Friedrich Wilhelm Zachariä’s Der Renommiste (1744). The article attempts to show that Zachariä’s poem, in addition to using the constitutive contrasts of mock-heroic for comic effects, also displays a critical attitude towards traditional ideals of heroism.

Image of eighteenth-century Polish city in Jakub Jasinski’s poems Quarrels Sprzeczki Jakub Jasinski in the mock-heroic Quarrels places action of story in one of the provincial towns in the vicinity of Krakow. The architectural image of the eighteenth-century city that emerges from the poem shows the problems of Polish realities that urgently needed reforms. During this time, outside the capital, which grew fast, the cities of Poland were mired in poverty. There were many, but existed on the verge of collapse, were often deserted, standing in the ruins. In Western Europe city life was cultural and economically prosperous, and town`s people lived in well-being. The poem from Jasinski’s hand shows Polish reality subjected to criticism, which formed the basis of his polit­ical program based on the Enlightenment slogans of social reform and rationalism.

Catullus'Carmen64 unfurls a narrative tapestry rich in meaning and allusion. Its account of the marriage of Thetis and Peleus recalls the Trojan cycle, theIliadand theCypriain particular, and offers a response to and program for epic. Although Catullus' Alexandrian poem revels in its own retrospection and nostalgia,Carmen64 expresses the futility of attempting to achieve any true νόστος (‘return’) to the dominating yet foreclosed world of Homeric epic.Carmen64 reveals new perspectives in which traditional epic elements are reversed, reordered or juxtaposed in unexpected ways; these challenge received notions such as the admissible constituents of epic background, foreground, narrative and digression; the definitions of heroic deeds; and the implications of speech and writing.In the course of this revisionary projectCarmen64 avails itself of a systematic imagery involving cloths, clothes and textiles that are viewed and accessed by the poem's characters throughout to convey or receive knowledge: messages that are ‘written’ or ‘read’ or even ‘missed’ (as in the case of Aegeus seeing the forgetful Theseus' sails) in a variety of textile mediums: theuestis uariataof the central ekphrasis, Ariadne's clothes, her thread in the labyrinth, Theseus' sails, the threads of the Parcae, the thread to measure the neck of the newlywed Thetis—all these inform a text that is unified fromCarmen64's textiles. Recollection and representation are central to much fiction—μνῆσαι (‘remember’) is Priam's first word to Achilles atIliad24.486—andCarmen64 reaches far back into memory to cull myths from the epic repertoire to weave into its fabric.

Mock-epics were first created already in the antiquity and the most famous of them, the Batrachomyomachia, was translated into Estonian already in 1875 by Jaan Bergmann; it was also the first full translation of an ancient epic poem into Estonian. However, until now, no Estonian original mock-epics were known and this genre was presumed to have evolved in Estonian literature only in the 20th century, mostly used in parodies of the national epic, the Kalevipoeg.
 In this issue, we introduce a new archival find from Jaan Bergmann’s manuscript poetry book. We discovered that, having probably been inspired by the Batrachomyomachia, but perhaps also by Nikolay Osipov’s Eneida (1791), Jaan Bergmann had created his own mock-heroic poem Jaaniida (1875). It is a multidimensional and poetically rich poem, interweaving different verse cultures and different eras. On the one hand, its analysis reveals clear influences of the Odyssey: there are parallels with the portrayal of the main hero, images and the plot, as well as with the Homeric epic techniques (for example, both epics begin with the prooemium, which contains an invocation). But in terms of poetic devices and versification, Jaaniida draws on Estonian folk songs, using the folk meter, plenty of alliteration and assonance as well as parallelism, and imitating their morphology and vocabulary. The storyline of the poem features events that appear to have happened only recently before the writing of the text (most probably in 1866–1875): the transition from villeinage to money rent and the cases of corruption among local administrators. Against this background, Bergmann satirically pictures the rise of an individual and his later downfall caused by his weaknesses and vices.

The decade after the Restoration saw the publication of several important works and collections of verse. Samuel Butler’s mock-heroic Hudibras satirized the civil war conflict, and although Abraham Cowley’s reputation was at its height, he lamented in his Pindaric odes the lack of reward and recognition for his hardships in the service of the royal family in exile. Katherine Philips’s poems were printed without her consent, and she was preparing an authorized edition when she died from smallpox. John Milton published his epic poem Paradise Lost in 1667, divided in 1674 to form twelve books, followed by Paradise Regain’d and Samson Agonistes in 1671.