SOURCE: "Irony in Dryden's Ode to Anne Killigrew," in Studies in Philology, Vol. LXII, No. 1, January 1965, pp. 91-100.

In the following excerpt, Vieth argues that in his To the Pious Memory of the Accomplisht Young Lady Mrs. Anne Killigrew, Dryden has not written a conventional ode of praise, but created instead an elegy that is both gently mocking and affectionate.

In the current revival of interest in Dryden and his contemporaries, much attention has been given to his ode To the Pious Memory Of the Accomplisht Young Lady Mrs Anne Killigrew. Extensive and illuminating analyses have been contributed by Ruth Wallerstein ["On the Death of Mrs. Killigrew: The Perfecting of a Genre"] E. M. W. Tillyard [Five Poems, 1470-1870], and Arthur W. Hoffman, whose recent book, John Dryden's Imagery, devotes more space to the Killigrew ode than to any of Dryden's other poems. All three critics interpret the...