dithyramb

noun

1. A raucous and ardent choral hymn sung in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus.

   “Now of the numerical constitution of the chorus before Aeschylus we know nothing; but to him, in the Suppliant Maidens at least, it was a happy coincidence that the myth gave to Danaüs fifty daughters, a number exactly equal to that of the chorus of the dithyramb, from which tragedy itself had sprung.”

2. A poem or oration in the same style.

   “While those who drown a truth’s empiric part In dithyramb or dogma turn frenetic; — Than whom no writer could be less poetic He left this lesson for all verse, all art.”

3. An impassioned speech; a rant.