OXFORD - POETRY - EDITH FRICKER


with the same form. The odes that have just been dis-
cussed, especially those derived from The Bard, have all of
them some of the characteristics of the dramatic mono-
logue, and in the hands of Taylor's two pupils the mono-
drama was but a by-development of the ode. It was
always written by them in blank verse, was always con-
cerned, like several of Southey's odes, with the suicide of
some mythological or heroic personage under stress of cir-
cumstances of great pith and moment, and consisted of his
or her parting words setting forth the occasion of the agony
and concluding with the death stroke itself. Sayers's Os-
wald dealt with the theme of Odin's death, which Southey
also treated, possibly on this suggestion, in his ode on the
same subject. In his second edition Sayers added another
monodrama called Pandora. Southey was quick to take
up with the new idea. His SapphoI was written in this
form in 1793, and was followed by similar pieces at various
later times: Orthryades2 and Aristodemus, both published
only over the signature S. in The Monthly Magazine for
August, 1796, and April, 1797, respectively, The Wife of
Fergus3 (1798), Ximalpoca3 (1798), Lucretia3 (1799), Frances
De Barry4 (1799?), and La Caba 5 (1802). Interest in these
things rests solely in the additional evidence they give of
Southey's erudition, of his passion for experimenting with
new forms, and his fatal facility for touching feebly upon
themes and styles that were later to have golden develop-
ment in other hands than his.
Of the rest of Southey's minor productions during his
Oxford period, we have few remains, but their general
1 Poems, 1797; Works, 121.
2 The name is also spelt Othryades.
3Annual Anthology, 1799-1800; Works, 122-123.
4Daniel Stuart, Letters from the Lake Poets, 444-447.
5 Works, 123.


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