This study examines courtly occasional poetry in the 17th and early 18th century with special reference to the court of Elector Frederick Augustus I in Dresden. It is the first study to undertake a systematic exploration of occasional poetry in praise of the aristocracy, and casts new light on the social, political and literary context in which this genre evolved. Paradigmatic text interpretations demonstrate that this form of poetic laudatio was by no means impervious to the theological, political and aesthetic debates of the day. Indeed, it is possible to show that in the early Enlightenment this traditional genre had an innovative potential far beyond what is generally thought to have been the case.