Abstract
John Wolcot, writing as Peter Pindar, brought Pindaric odes to the masses through his widely-distributed, prolific body of work in satirical vernacular poetry. Wolcot claims Pindar as cousin and distant relative and writes on Pindar’s “desultory” and “hop and step and jump mode of inditing,” (62) a style Wolcot himself uses throughout his poetry. Wolcot covers at length the themes of Fame and Praise through a highly critical lens, while also criticizing hypocrites who claim to eschew Fame while secretly courting it. Wolcot transforms Pindar’s epinician odes into odes of debasement, skewering subjects from poets to princes “bit by that glorious mad-dog Fame” (Wolcot 16) and bringing Pindaric influences to vernacular poetry not by pure parody, but by embodying complexity, depth, and cultural references in a completely different genre. Punishingly cynical at times and stingy and sparing with praise, Wolcot’s poetry was widely popular, written neither by nor for the elite, yet building on and borrowing from Pindar’s epinician odes. Accessible, prolific, satirical across a broad range of pop culture subjects receiving fame and praise of the day, and indebted to Pindar’s style and themes, the works of John Wolcot brought Pindar to the eighteenth century. Whether getting read and recommended by the likes Mary Wollstonecraft and William Wordsworth or receiving scathing remarks from Samuel Coleridge and Lord Byron, John Wolcot’s Pindaric experiment received mixed reactions but widespread readership and created an indelible literary impact.
Wolcot, J. (1812). The works of Peter Pindar, Esq: to which are prefixed memoirs of the author's life ; in 5 vol. Germany: Walker.