Dryden’s Occult Rhetoric in the Early Poems, 1649–1663

In the poems composed before his first serious plays, Dryden rhetorically exploits the malleability of occult beliefs during this period. He uses the mixed attitudes toward astrology, alchemy, and, to a lesser extent, demonology and other folks beliefs, to broaden meaning and to address some of the problems associated with the subjects he chooses to discuss.