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

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

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

The princess Leonora remonstrated with her poet on his folly, and Tasso, by way of palinode, wrote a fulsome commentary on three of Pigna's wooden canzoni, ranking them with Petrarch's.

From Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama A Literary Inquiry, with Special Reference to the Pre-Restoration Stage in England by Greg, Walter W.

His conscious has been awakened, and like Stesichorus when he had reviled the lovely Helen he will sing a palinode for having blasphemed the majesty of love.

From Phaedrus by Jowett, Benjamin

Samuel Butler has a palinode, in which he recanted what he said in a previous poem of the Hon. Edward Howard.

From Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 by Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham

That high praise was once well-deserved, and was cordially given: but since, alas! according to my lights I have seen fit more than once to "palinode."

From My Life as an Author by Tupper, Martin Farquhar

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 Fassett, Jacob S. (Jacob Sloat)