POETRY : THE ODE

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The ode may be defined as a 'rhymed lyric often in the form of an address, generally dignified or powerful in subject, feeling and style'. An ode is noted for its logical evolution of thought and it has a certain amount of complexity and elaboration unlike a simple lyric. 

The ode usually begins with an address to somebody or something. Sometimes the opening line may contain an apostrophe as in the case of Shelley's 'Ode to the west wind'. An ode may be written for an important public event or on the death of a distinguished person. 

The ode is of Greek origin. There were two traditions of odes in Greece :

  1. The Dorian ode, so called from its district and dialect in which it arouse. It is also called the Pindaric ode because Pindar, the ancient Greek poet, was its greatest pioneer.   
  2. The Lesbian ode, so called because it flourished at first in the island of Lesbos. It is also called as Horatian ode because the great Latin poet Horace was its best practitioner. 

A Dorian or Pindaric ode consists of three parts :
  • The strophe
  • The anti-strophe
  • The epode 
While the Lesbian or Horatian ode consists of a number of short stanzas similar in length and arrangement. 

Though in the early stages the English ode was influenced by the two Greek models gradually it began to pursue a course of its own - the regular and irregular ode. 

Few examples of regular odes are - Collin's 'Ode to Evening' and Shelley's 'Ode to the West Wind'.
Wordsworth's 'Ode on Intimations of Immorality from Recollections of Early Childhood' and Coleridge's 'Dejection: An Ode' are good examples of irregular odes. 

In English, Ben Johnson, Milton and Gray wrote Pindaric odes. Marvell wrote Horatian odes. Other important poets who wrote odes were Spenser, Collins, Keats, Shelley and Tennyson.  


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