2 The Ode: History and Form

She dotes on poetry, sir. She adores it; I may say that her whole soul and mind are wound up, and entwined with it. She has produced some delightful pieces, herself, sir. You may have met with her ‘Ode to an Expiring Frog,’ sir.
— Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers

The Ode

An exalted form of expression with a singular purpose, the ode is a song of praise. Originally developed as an intricately structured three part lyrical poem to be chanted by a chorus while accompanied by musical instruments, the ode has been used as song to praise or glorify an individual, an idea, or an event. While today, the form varies, the ode always uses a direct address to elevate and even celebrate someone or something.

Deathless Aphrodite, throned in flowers,
Daughter of Zeus, O terrible enchantress,
With this sorrow, with this anguish, break my spirit
Lady, not longer!
Hear anew the voice! O hear and listen!
Come, as in that island dawn thou camest,
Billowing in thy yoked car to Sappho
Forth from thy father’s
Golden house in pity! . . .
— Pindaric Ode: Ode to Aphrodite - Sappho (c. 630-570 B.C.)

The Ode: The History and the Form

"Ode" comes from the Greek aeidein, meaning to sing or chant and/ or oide, meaning song.

The ode has gone through many changes throughout history, and there are several forms.

Historically, the first type that I have studied is known as the Pindaric Ode. This form was developed by Pindar, a Greek poet who was writing during the 5th century BC. The Pindaric ode is a highly structured poem, grandiose and dramatic, and is designed to be performed on a stage chanted by a chorus and accompanied by dancers and music. This form consists of several parts: the strophe (the beginning), antistrophe (the middle), and epode (the end). While the strophe and antistrophe share a common meter and length the epode does not. In this form, allusions to mythological beings, places, and events are common.

The Horatian ode, named after Roman poet Horace, was created during the 1st century. Not as elaborate as the Pindaric, this type is much more regular in form, consisting of two to four line stanzas which are all uniform in meter, rhyme scheme, and length. In this type of ode, daily life is elevated. This style is more of a text to be read than a production to be experienced.

The more modern, irregular ode breaks away from the structures of the Pindaric and the Horatian. The style is diverse. Odists of the irregular ode do rhyme sometimes, and sometimes, they do not rhyme. Lines and stanzas are irregular.

The ode . . . elevated the person, the object, to occasion.
— Strand and Boland, 240

Resources


Bloom, Harold. The Best Poems of the English Language: From Chaucer Through Frost. First, Harper Collins, 2004.

Boland, Eavan, and Mark Strand. The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. Reprint, W. W. Norton & Company, 2001.

Poetic Meter and Poetic Form by Fussell (1-Jan-1979) Paperback. Revised, McGraw-Hill Higher Education; Revised edition edition (1 Jan. 1979), 1979.

Questions

  • What do you know about odes?

  • Have you ever read or listened to an ode?

  • Do you have a favorite ode?

  • Have you ever written an ode?

  • If you were to write an ode, what or who would be your subject?

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3 The Ode and the Odists

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1 The Benefits of Poetry