The word ‘ode’ in Greek, its origin, means a song. The Greek ode has two forms – the Pindaric and the Horatfan. Pindar, the Greek poet, composed choric odes, called Pindaric or Dorian ode. The odes written by Horace, the Roman poet, are known as Oration or Lesbian odes. It is a dance-song.
The Oration ode consists of three parts – strophe, anti-strophe and epode. Strophe means turning. It is sung by one-half of the singers. When it is sung, the chorus moves to one side of the stage. The chorus reverses its direction when the anti-strophe is sung which is sung by the other half, chorus stands still during the singing of the epode, which is sung by all the dancers. It’s simpler in form than the Pindaric ode.
It consists of a number of short stanzas. The treatment red and dignified. Though English ode is Greek in origin it has its own course. It follows the -teal tradition in subject matter, treatment and style. A few irregular odes are written in English for ice. We may take the ode of Ben Jonson for perusal.
The first line in the ode is strophe, the second is anti-strophe. The third and fourth lines are -des. The first two lines have four iambic feet (an iambic foot contains a short and a long syllable). The third and fourth lines have five iambs each.
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The second stanza contains a strophe, anti-strophe, Isopods, a strophe and anti-strophe. The rhyme scheme is as, bb, cc, dandy as. The difference the structure of the second stanza may be noted as the last two lines each contain five iambic feet. Themes are exalted as it deals with beauty and perfection. The words that end in e, r, err, have melody of their own. Shelley’s Ode to Naples is a dance-song like that of Ben Jonson.
The English ode is usually in the form of an address and is dignified in its theme and style. The difference between other forms and the ode is perceptible in the choice of the theme. Wordsworth’s Ode on Intimations of Immortality stands on a different footing from his other poems such as Daffodils or Lucy.
It expresses his mystic experience in which he becomes ‘a living soul.’ The romantic poets took the ode to lofty heights. They pour their thoughts in ‘unpremeditated art’) it. The odes of Shelley and Keats are some of the finest in English verse.
Keats’s odes such as Ode ion a Grecian Urn and Ode to a Nightingale represent English poetry at its best by any standards. Tennyson’s To Virgil is an interesting ode in the Victorian Age. The ode seems to be an obsolescent form in the modern age.