The Ode

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The Ode -

• Steve Balsarini
• ENG 488
• Literary Studies Review
• Northern State University
• Fall 2008

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Introduction

• O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
• Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
• Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter
  fleeing
• -Shelley

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Definition

• A lyric poem of some length, usually of a serious
  or meditative nature and having an elevated style
  and formal stanzaic structure.
• -American Heritage Dictionary

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Also known as

• A choric song of classical Greece, often
  accompanied by a dance and performed at a public
  festival or as part of a drama
• -American Heritage Dictionary

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Primary Elements

• A classical Greek poem modeled on the choric ode
  and usually having a three-part structure,
  consisting of a strophe, an antistrophe, and an
  epode.

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The Strophe

• A pair of stanzas of alternating form on which
  the structure of a given poem (such as an ode) is
  based.

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The Antistrophe

• The second division in the triadic structure of
  Pindaric verse, corresponding metrically to the
  strophe

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The Epode

• The third division of the triad of a Pindaric
  ode, having a different or contrasting form from
  that of the strophe and antistrophe.

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Pindaric Ode

• Named for the Greek lyric poet Pindar (522-443
  B.C.)

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Pindaric Ode

• Written in passionate praise of Ancient Greek
  Heroes, political and military leaders, and
  champion athletes.

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Pindaric Ode

• Designed to be sung and danced by a Greek chorus
  in a public festival or theater lyric pattern
  defined the movement.

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Horatian Ode

• Based on the works of Horace (65 8 B.C.), a
  Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.

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Horatian Ode

• By contrast, it is deeply personal, more
  meditative, less elaborate and more restrained
  than Pindaric Odes.

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English Ode

• 17th 18th Century
• Ode Boom
• Because Elizabethan poets brought elaborate lyric
  poetry into popular culture, they found the ode
  to be an ideal form.

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English Ode Rebirth of the Classic

• Ben Johnson
• Andrew Marvell
• John Milton
• Used the ode form for poetry of observation life
  and to express religious devotion

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English Ode

• Johnsons To the Immortal Memory of Sir Lucius
  Cary and Sir H. Morison
• Turn, counter turn, and stand
• Followed closely Pindaric tradition

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English Ode

• Abraham Cowley
• Ode, upon the Blessed Restoration and Return of
  His Sacred Majesty
• Irregular Ode abandoned traditional Pindaric
  stanza rules each stanza had its own rhyme
  pattern, and number of lines.

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The Ode in Romantic Literature

• Coleridge Dejection An Ode
• Wordsworth Intimations of Immortality
• Shelley - Ode to the West Wind
• Keats Ode to a Nightingale and Ode on a
  Grecian Urn

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The Ode in Romantic Poetry

• Like most Romantic literature, very emotional
• Almost audacious displays of sensitivity
• Nature Themes
• Deeply personal and introspective
• Praise for the common

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Modern Equivalent
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The Ode in Modern Literature

• W.H. Auden In Memory of W.B. Yeats
• Allen Tate Ode to the Confederate Dead
• Pablo Neruda Odas Elementales