Panegyric

(Gk 'pertaining to public assembly'). Poem or speech of public praise, usually for a person of renown (e.g., the king, a minister of state, a war hero). Originally, panegyric was a branch of rhetoric whose rules were laid down in the rhetorical works of Menander and Hermogenes. Scaliger also provides its rules in Poetics Libri Septem (1561).

Examples from Classical Times

- the festival oration delivered by Isocrates (436-338 BC) on the occasion of the Olympic games in 380 BC

- Pliny the Younger's (AD 61-c 113) euology on Roman Emperor Trajan

Examples from Restoration Times

- John Dryden, "Astraea Redux. A Poem on the Happy Restoration and Return of his Sacred Majesty Charles the Second" (1660)

- Nahum Tate, "Come Ye Sons of Art" (1694)

Sources

Cuddon, J.A., ed. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Penguin Reference: London, 1999.