Music
As its subtitle announces, “Alexander’s Feast” is a poem about the power of music. The narrative revolves around the song performed by the bard Timotheus and the ways in which it influences the emotions and actions of Alexander the Great and his people. The bard’s performance inspires feelings of pride, joy, grief, then anger; it transforms Alexander the Great into a god, then into a mourning man weeping into his lover’s chest, and finally into a furious military general proceeding to burn down his enemy’s city. In the finale of the poem, the speaker responds to this extraordinary event by praising the ability of musicians like Timotheus and St. Cecilia to move their listeners’ hearts with music.
Narrating Alexander’s “emotional rollercoaster,” and marveling upon a single musician’s capability to influence both the mind and body of a monarch, the speaker prompts the reader to think about the capacities and dangers of music. In “Alexander’s Feast,” music can both “raise[] a mortal to the skies” and “[draw] an angel down"; music can be both the sweet “pleasure after pain” and the “rattling peal of thunder” that overrides one’s sense of reason. The poem illustrates that music is political, and that it can be used or abused—in “Alexander’s Feast” a single bard with a lyre is enough to trigger the annihilation of a city.
War
“Alexander’s Feast” can be read as an antiwar critique in several ways. First, the poem prompts empathy (“[s]oft pity,” in Dryden’s words) for those who are sacrificed in the battlefield. Timotheus’s elegy in Stanza 4 departs from his previous songs in that, rather than celebrating military success, it humanizes the enemy and mourns his death which has provided the very occasion for the feast. The elegy and its visceral yet tear-jerking lyrics (“weltering in his [Darius’s] blood; / Deserted at his utmost need / By those his former bounty fed”) remind both King Alexander and the readers of the poem of the horrors of war.
The poem also associates war with hubris and capriciousness. Notice how important military decisions (e.g., the burning of Persepolis) are made under the influence of music and alcohol, and how easily King Alexander and his peers are roused to pride, reduced to tears, then stirred to genocidal anger. While the poem champions the power of art forms such as music to inspire and excite, it also warns against the impulsive and emotional decisions that often initiate war and destruction.
Timotheus’s lyrics in Stanza 5 articulates the antiwar argument of the poem: “War, he sung, is toil and trouble, / Honour but an empty bubble; / Never ending, still beginning, / Fighting still, and still destroying.” War, as Timotheus sings, is painful, futile, and endless, and military fame is ephemeral.
Religion
In “Alexander’s Feast,” religious faith both consolidates communal identity and reinforces an “us” vs. “them” paradigm between one’s own community and another. The Macedonians come together in their celebration of the Roman gods, and their acts of worship, performances, and festivities (e.g., their cries of “A present deity!”) provide them an opportunity to reaffirm communal values. Timotheus’s lyrics, too, make references to the Macedonians’ shared faith in Roman deities (e.g., Jove and Bacchus), their ceremonial traditions (e.g., the burial rites that should have been performed for the Grecian ghosts), and their religious rivalry with the Persians (e.g., “their [Persian] hostile gods”). The speaker, who narrates this event in 17th-century England, similarly constructs a hierarchy between their own religion and that of the Macedonian ancients. Making a comparison between pagan bard Timotheus and Catholic martyr-musician St. Cecilia, the speaker suggests that the latter is superior to the former in terms of both musical talent and spirituality.
Religion in “Alexander’s Feast” is thus both a divisive and unifying force. Timotheus creates a dichotomy between the religion of Macedonia and that of Persia; the speaker of the poem creates one between paganism and Christianity. Timotheus’s song both allows for a joyous bacchanal and catalyzes the brutal destruction of Persepolis; the Christian speaker of the poem welcomes the observers of St. Cecilia’s Day, while also making sure the pagan ancients do not steal the spotlight. “Alexander’s Feast” illustrates how religion is a facilitator of both inclusion and exclusion.
