Alexander's Feast, or the Power of Music Literary Elements

The unnamed speaker, from a third-person subjective point of view, narrates a performance by Timotheus that took place at the feast of Alexander the Great after his defeat of the Persian king Darius. The speaker inserts their own interpretations of the event, such as their praises of Timotheus's ability to inspire emotion through music.

Seven stanzas; mixed meter (e.g., pentameter, tetrameter, trimeter, dimeter; iambic, trochaic, catalectic); heroic couplets (with variations, e.g., ABBA rhyme scheme)

"The lovely Thais by his side / Sate like a blooming Eastern bride": In this simile, Thais, the wife of Alexander the Great, is compared to an "Eastern bride." (Note that the way in which Dryden racializes or "foreignizes" Thais's beauty may be considered Orientalist by modern-day standards.)
"And stamp'd an image of himself, a sovereign of the world": A metaphor that compares the replication of Jove's image in Alexander to the stamping of a picture.
"Honour but an empty bubble": In this simile, Timotheus compares honor—fleeting, meaningless—to an empty bubble.
"And rouse him like a rattling peal of thunder": The sound of the lyre is compared to a loud strike of thunder.
"As awaked from the dead": The lyre is so loud and horrid that it is as though it has raised the dead back to life.

"Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound": consonance of the "r"
"With flying fingers touch’d the lyre": alliteration of the "f"
"A dragon’s fiery form belied the god": alliteration of the "f"
"And while he sought her snowy breast": sibilance (alliteration and consonance of the "s")
"the vaulted roofs rebound": alliteration of the "r"
"Sound the trumpets, beat the drums! / Flush’d with a purple grace": assonance of the short "u"
"Bacchus’ blessings are a treasure": alliteration of the "b"
"Sweet is pleasure after pain": alliteration of the "p"
"Soothed with the sound": sibilance (alliteration of the "s")
"thrice he slew the slain": alliteration of the "sl"
"The master saw the madness rise [...] He chose a mournful Muse": alliteration of the "m"
"By too severe a fate / Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen, / Fallen from his high estate": alliteration of the "f"
"Softly sweet, in Lydian measures / Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures": sibilance (alliteration and consonance of the "s")
"If the world be worth thy winning": alliteration of the "w"
"The vanquish’d victor sunk upon her breast": alliteration of the "v"
"Break his bands of sleep asunder": alliteration of the "b"
"And rouse him like a rattling peal of thunder": alliteration of the "r"
"Hark, hark! the horrid sound": alliteration of the "h"
"See the snakes that they rear / How they hiss in their hair": sibilance (alliteration and consonance of the "s"), alliteration of the "h"
"Behold how they toss their torches on high": alliteration of the "t"
"The sweet enthusiast from her sacred store": sibilance (alliteration and consonance of the "s")
"Enlarged the former narrow bounds": consonance of the "r"

In Stanza 4, Timotheus chooses to sing about Darius and his death. Situational irony occurs when Alexander the Great becomes so intensely moved by the bard's song that he cries for the man he has killed in battle.

Ode, narrative poetry

The feast in Alexander the Great’s castle, after his triumph over the Persian king Darius.

The tone of the poem, often approximating that of Timotheus's performance, shifts from pompous and celebratory (Stanzas 1-3) to remorseful and pensive (Stanzas 4-5) to aggressive (Stanza 6) to laudatory (Stanza 7).

(political conflict) The Macedonians (Alexander the Great, Thais, Timotheus) vs. The Persians (Darius); (psychological conflict) Alexander the Great vs. Timotheus and his performance

The poem is set in the context of a military conflict between the Macedonians and the Persians. The major conflict, however, is an internal one, caused by music and its power to incite various psychological responses—throughout the poem, Timotheus's performance manipulates Alexander the Great to feel and act in certain ways.

The poem reaches its climax in Stanza 6, when Alexander the Great and his army, stirred to anger by the bard's song, burn and destroy the Persian palace.

In Stanza 2, the speaker mentions how the bard had a great influence on the people in the room. This foreshadows the influence Timotheus's music would have on Alexander the Great, and the violence he would inflict on the Persian capital.

The speaker's claim in Stanza 7 that music has the power to influence a person’s mood ("swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire") is a bit of an understatement—stirred to anger by music, Alexander the Great sets an entire city on fire.

"The song began from Jove [...] When he to fair Olympia prest": Here, the speaker makes reference to Jove, the king of Roman gods, to underscore the lofty and elevated nature of Timotheus's song of praise to Alexander the Great.
"A dragon’s fiery form belied the god": The music produced by the bard is compared to a dragon that slowly engulfs its prey. In the Bible, the dragon is often associated with the Devil. By comparing the power of music to a dragon, the speaker implies that music, while it is pleasant, can have a dangerous power over a person’s mood and feelings if it is not controlled properly.
"Revenge, revenge, Timotheus cries, / See the Furies arise!": The bard makes reference to the Furies, the Roman deities of vengeance who are described to have snakes for hair.
"Thais led the way / To light him to his prey, / And like another Helen, fired another Troy!": The speaker compares Thais to Helen of Troy, whose beauty is said to have started the Trojan War. The speaker brings Helen and Thais together as attractive female figures who cause war.
"At last divine Cecilia came": The speaker compares Timotheus to the Catholic martyr St. Cecilia, who is known to have similarly inspired passion in her listeners with her musical performance.

"seems to shake the spheres": The term "sphere" is an instance of synecdoche that uses celestial bodies to refer to the universe in general. Similarly, the "skies" in "He raised a mortal to the skies" represent the general world of the divine.
"Let old Timotheus yield the prize, / Or both divide the crown": An example of metonymy in which the word "crown" represents honor and recognition.

"So Love was crown’d, but Music won the cause": Both love (which is an abstract concept) and music (which is a form of art) are described as though they are human beings who can be praised or rewarded.
"Ere heaving bellows learn’d to blow, / While organs yet were mute": Instruments (bellows and organs) are compared to human beings who can learn certain skills or produce speech.
"With Nature’s mother-wit, and arts unknown before": Nature is personified as a motherly and wise figure through whom St. Cecilia gained her wisdom and artistry.

"The listening crowd admire the lofty sound; / A present deity! they shout around": Comparing a human being to a deity, the crowd makes a hyperbolic remark.
"Soothed with the sound, the king grew vain; / Fought all his battles o’er again": Alexander the Great does not "[fight] all his battles o'er again" in the literal sense. The speaker compares the king's vanity, hyperbolically, to a physical reenactment of all his battles with Persia.
"The many rend the skies with loud applause": The loudness of the applause is exaggerated—it seems as though it can rip the sky.
"As awaked from the dead / And amazed he stares around.": This hyperbole describes Timotheus's performance as something so intense that it awakens the dead.
"He raised a mortal to the skies, / She drew an angel down!": The musical talents of Timotheus and St. Cecilia are exaggerated—both musicians are described as being capable of manipulating the divine.

"See the snakes that they rear / How they hiss in their hair": The word "hiss" approximates the sounds that snakes make.