Dryden

The Power of Music in A Song for St. Cecilia's Day and Alexander's Feast

The poem A Song for St. Cecilia's Day celebrates the power of music by drawing on Christian and Jewish traditions as well as classical tales. When the author says that music may raise and quell any form of passion, he is explicitly expressing this idea. As a result, the production of A Song for St. Cecilia's Day connects specific passions with specific instruments. Similarly, the theme of Alexander's Feast is about the power that music has to transform emotions, arouse and quell. The poem portrays emotions through the efficient utilization of rhythm, content and sound. Although the themes of these two poems by the same author seem similar the poems are also dissimilar in various aspects like the author’s use of symbolism.

The Motive Power of Music in A Song for St. Cecilia's Day

A Song for St. Cecilia's Day has discussed music’s motive power that is clearly seen by the author’s choice of the title “song for St. Cecilia’s day”. The general message sent out by the poem is ability of music to play on the emotions of humans as they are at a position of being overwhelmed by different music types. On the first stanza, the poem restages creation from a musical standpoint. The author represents music as a personification of divinity. In line 6, Dryden says that “the tuneful voice” initiated genesis. Another example can be found in the fourth stanza where the poet talks of music as having power to raise passion. Individual instruments can raise emotions, which mean that music can be associated with creation of certain emotions and passion. For instance, the flute’s soft sad music is associated with the feeling of a hopeless lover that is sad.

The Power of Music in Alexander's Feast

Similarly, the theme of the power of music is focused on in Alexander's Feast. The theme of this poem is also developed in a lyric manner as it appeals to both emotions and imagination. Just like A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, this poem has choruses after every stanza, but A Song for St. Cecilia's Day has one at the end. It is also worth noting that the poem illustrates the music of Timotheus, which is capable of dominating the most powerful empire.

The Use of Symbolism in the Poems

However, Dryden uses different objects to symbolize his ideas in the two poems. In Alexander's Feast, the poet has used roses and associated them with desire and love. They served as ordinary symbols in the poem to represent strength and determination of the empire and achievements. The musical instruments used in this poem refer to music that contributes to the poem’s optimistic tone. However, different things are represented by varying symbols in A Song for St. Cecilia's. In the first stanza, Dryden mentions nature as a symbol representing the scale of music that the poet compared to the chain of being. In addition, the mention of mankind in the last line of the first stanza symbolizes the note that finishes the scale. During creation, man was made last as he is mentioned on the stanza’s last line.

Dryden's Stanzas in A Song for St. Cecilia's Day

The second stanza of A Song for St. Cecilia's Day reads; “What passion cannot Music raise and quell? When Jubal[4] struck the corded shell,[5] His list'ning brethren stood around, And, wond'ring, on their faces fell To worship that celestial sound, 20 Less than a god they thought there could not dwell Within the hollow of that shell That spoke so sweetly and so well. What passion cannot Music raise and quell?”

Dryden's Emphasis in the Stanza

Why do you think Dryden started and finished the stanza with the same line? What was he trying to emphasize?