Odes — Form, Types, and Examples
What is an ode?
An ode is a lyric poem that uses a formal tone to praise or dedicate someone or something (idea or event) that captures the poet's interest or serves as an inspiration. The poet exaggeratedly pays tribute to the subject by bringing it to life and speaking to it.
Odes are one type of lyric poetry, along with elegies and sonnets.
Odes were originally performed publicly to celebrate Greek athletic victories, sometimes to music and dance. English Romantic poets later adopted odes to express their emotions through descriptive language.
Form of an ode
The format of an ode depends upon the type. Technically, there is no specific length, rhyme scheme, or meter; however, poets can incorporate a rhyme scheme and/or metrical pattern at their discretion.
Types of odes
There are three main types of ode form: Pindaric, Horatian, and Irregular.
Pindaric
Origin: Also known as the Greek ode, the Pindaric ode derives its name from ancient Greek poet Pindar, who lived in the 5th century BCE. He mainly wrote songs that were performed on stage by dancers and singers, sometimes called a choral ode. They regained popularity in England during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Content: Pindaric odes were typically composed in connection with important events in ancient Greece, such as the Greek classical games. They would pay tribute to the young men who were successful in the games, often praising them as heroes.
Structure: Pindaric odes have no set length, meter, or rhyme. Instead, they have three parts that correspond with the movement of the chorus in a Greek play.
Strophe: Meaning “turn,” the chorus moved from the right to the left of the stage while reciting the strophe.
Antistrophe: The chorus moved from the left to the right of the stage. The antistrophe has the same length and metrical pattern as the strophe. Antistrophe means “to turn back” and serves as a response to the strophe.
Epode: The chorus moves to the middle of the stage. The epode has a different length and metrical pattern than the strophe and antistrophe.
Horatian
Origin: Developed by the Latin poet Horace around the 1st century BCE, Horatian odes were developed as a response to Pindaric odes. Horace preferred writing odes that were gentle and serene with subtle irony and gentle humor.
Content: Horatian odes detail a tone of tranquility and contemplation used for meditative purposes. They usually reflect upon ideas related to friendship, love, and writing poetry.
Structure: The stanzas of a Horatian ode are made up of either two or four lines each. Each stanza follows the same rhyme and meter, although including a specific rhyme scheme and metrical pattern is up to the poet.
Irregular
Origin: Abraham Crowley introduced irregular odes in 1656 because he wanted to retain the serious subject matter but wanted greater structural freedom than the Pindaric ode allowed.
Content: Irregular odes are universally relatable, as they focus on everyday objects and ideas such as love or nature. Poets do not limit themselves to serious or lofty ideas in these odes, as they can often be silly or quite simple.
Structure: Unlike Pindaric and Horatian odes, irregular odes do not use any patterns, such as rhyme scheme or meter, and may have an irregular stanza pattern.
Ode examples
The following examples of odes include the three main types:
Here is an example of a Pindaric ode from an excerpt of “Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” by William Wordsworth:
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;—
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
The rainbow comes and goes,
And lovely is the rose;
The moon doth with delight
Look round her when the heavens are bare;
Waters on a starry night
Are beautiful and fair;
The sunshine is a glorious birth;
But yet I know, where'er I go,
That there hath past away a glory from the earth.
Still be my ally!
An example of a Horatian ode from “Ode to the Confederate Dead” by Allen Tate:
Row after row with strict impunity
The headstones yield their names to the element,
The wind whirrs without recollection;
In the riven troughs the splayed leaves
Pile up, of nature the casual sacrament
To the seasonal eternity of death;
Then driven by the fierce scrutiny
Of heaven to their election in the vast breath,
They sough the rumour of mortality.
Autumn is desolation in the plot
Of a thousand acres where these memories grow
From the inexhaustible bodies that are not
Dead, but feed the grass row after rich row.
Think of the autumns that have come and gone!--
Ambitious November with the humors of the year,
With a particular zeal for every slab,
Staining the uncomfortable angels that rot
On the slabs, a wing chipped here, an arm there:
The brute curiosity of an angel's stare
Turns you, like them, to stone,
Transforms the heaving air
Till plunged to a heavier world below
You shift your sea-space blindly
Heaving, turning like the blind crab.
Finally, here is an Irregular ode from “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats:
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.
O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."