Robert Dodsley, Melpomene or The Regions of Terror and Pity An Ode

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Robert Dodsley arranged to have his poem,

Melpomene: Or The Regions of Terror and Pity. An Ode

published anonymously in September 1757. The title page of the sixteen-page pamphlet did not carry, as such pages normally did, the name of the author, publisher or printer, as Dodsley did not want the reading public to have any preconceptions concerning the quality of the poem based on knowledge, either of the author’s name, or of the poem’s provenance. He wanted his ode’s readers to consider it as a poem by an as-yet-unknown poet. In this he was largely successful, with Thomas Gray, the finest ode-writer of the mid-eighteenth century, writing to his friend William Mason at the end of September saying, “I have had a printed ode sent me, called Melpomene. Pray, who wrote it? . . . I like…

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Citation: Gordon, Ian. "Melpomene or The Regions of Terror and Pity An Ode". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 December 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16870, accessed 19 March 2024.]

16870 Melpomene or The Regions of Terror and Pity An Ode 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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