ODE

On this blog  see also Keatsian Ode.

       The ode is thought of  today as simply as a poem of praise, in any form, of any length.  The ode, however, has a long and complicated history.  As mentioned in the discussion of  elegy, the general tendency over time has been to simplify poetic formats.
      Because a challenge in Keatsian ode format is coming up soon in the Poetry Society of Tennessee, it is discussed here early.  The Keatsian or English Ode is:

• metered (essentially iambic pentameter) 
• stanzaic, composed in 10-line stanzas, 3 to 8 of them.
• rhymed, opening with a Sicilian quatrain (rhyme abab) and continuing with an Italian sestet (rhyme cdecde).
• tranquil or contemplative in mood / tone.

       John Keats, English Poet, 1785-1821, wrote a lot of odes.  Below are some sample stanzas from a  Keatsian ode, "Ode to a Nightinggale.". Note that the stanza has 10 lines, rhyme as described above, iambic pentameter meter except for line 8, which is iambic trimeter.

Stanza 1:

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
---- My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
---- One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
---- But being too happy in thine happiness,--
-------- That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees
----------- In some melodious plot 

-Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
-----Singest of summer in full-throated ease. 

Stanza 5: 

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,

     Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs

But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet

     Wherewith the seasonable month endows

The grass, the thicket, and the fruit-tree wild; 

      White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine; 

            Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves; 

                 And mid-May's eldest child. 

The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,

     The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves. 

Note: You might want to look at the total poem, which contains 8 stanzas.  It is contained in most English Lit anthologies. 

                                       **********                      **********                ************

     The formal ode contains three parts:  the strophe, antistrophe, and epode.  These represent the movement of singers in a Greek chorus, up one side and down the other, and then standing still to deliver the conclusion.  The movement itself was equivalent to the rise and fall of emotional power.

     Three types of odes are recognized:  the Pindaric or regular, the homostrophic, and the irregular.    The three parts named above are well demonstrated in the Pindaric ode.  The strophe and antistrophe are alike in form, and the epode different.  The first two contain any number of metered lines.  The meter is the same in each, but the rhyme schemes differ. Still another rhyme is contained in the epode or concluding portion of the Pindaric ode.

      The homostrophic ode is a one-stanza structure, which may vary greatly from poem to poem.  An example is "Ode to France" by S.T. Coleridge.

      The irregular form offers greatest poetic license and freedom of expression, and for that reason is the popular form today.  The stanzas display no fixed pattern; line lengths vary; line count varies from stanza to stanza; etc.  The rhythm quickens and slackens according to the mood of the poet and the emotional intensity. An example is Wm. Wordsworth's "Intimations of Immortality."

      In studying the ode, a complicated form, one comes across many terms needing definition.

Horatian ode:  Short lyrical poem written in stanzas of 2 or 4 lines like Latin poet Horace, whose odes are intimate and reflective. They are often addressed to a friend and deal with friendship, love and poetry.

Epinicion ode:  A song of triumph or a choral lyric ode to honor a victor in war or in the Hellenic games.  It was used to celebrate the victor's triumphal return to the city. With no fixed form, the poem's subject matter centers around the victor and the occasion of his success. It may also mention other victorious family members, or compliment the victor's trainer.  


EXAMPLES:
1) "Ode to a Grecian Urn" by John Keats
2) "Ode to the West Wind" by Percy B. Shelley
3) "Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat" by Thomas Gray
4) "Intimations of Immortality" by William Wordsworth
5) "Ode to the Confederate Dead"  by Allen Tate


Note: The shortest of the examples is probably Gray's cat poem, which contains 7 stanzas of 6 lines (42 lines).