palinode

American  

[pal-uh-nohd] / ˈpæl əˌnoʊd /

noun

1. a poem in which the poet retracts something said in an earlier poem.

2. a recantation.

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palinode British  

/ ˈpælɪˌnəʊd /

noun

1. a poem in which the poet recants something he has said in a former poem

2. rare a recantation

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Other Word Forms

• palinodist
  noun

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Etymology

Origin of palinode

1590–1600; < Late Latin palinōdia < Greek palinōidía a singing again, especially a recanting, equivalent to pálin again, back + ōid ( ḗ ) ode + -ia -ia

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Explanation

A palinode is a poem that retracts a feeling expressed in a previous work. If a poet's opinions change, they can use a palinode to reverse their earlier stance, perhaps offering praise where they once offered criticism. If you're embarrassed by the rhyming verse you wrote in first grade about your love of Pokémon, you may want to compose a palinode that recants that sentiment. Palinode is derived from the Greek palinoidia or "poetic retraction," and the roots palin, "back," and oide, "song." Ancient Greeks invented the palinode form, which Chaucer used at the very end of The Canterbury Tales to apologize for its vulgar language and ask for forgiveness.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

palinode

As if it were any man's business to sing a palinode for another's error; or as if anything that is said in that work of mine under any character whatever, were my own opinion.

From Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I. by Desiderius Erasmus

When we do our full duty to him we will, northerners and southerners alike, agree that Whittier’s palinode ought to have gone full circle before it paused.

From The Brothers' War by John Calvin Reed

This palinode is, no doubt, intended to give a plausible air of fairness to the book, but such a death-bed repentance comes too late, and makes the whole preceding history seem not fair but foolish.

From Reviews by Oscar Wilde

I no longer hear the voice of prudence seducing me, as it did a few days since, to a palinode in complicity with a romantic morning of white mist.

From Youth and Egolatry by Jacob S. (Jacob Sloat) Fassett

XLIV. may be accepted as a palinode for XLIII.

From Sonnets by John Addington Symonds

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