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In classical antiquity, a poem intended to be sung, usually in honour of some special occasion or as part of a play. Some Horatian odes were set to music in medieval court circles and monastery schoolrooms, and in the 1490s Conradus Celtes at Ingolstadt commissioned Petrus Tritonius to compose four-voice illustrations of the 19 poetic metres in Horace's odes. Tritonius's work enjoyed great success and similar German collections were published in the 16th century.

In England between 1660 and 1820 odes were regularly composed for royal occasions, and from 1715 the preparation of odes on the monarch's birthday and the New Year was part of the duties of the poet laureate and the Master of the King's Musick. Blow, Purcell, Handel and Boyce were important composers of court odes. Like the Cecilian odes composed annually (with few exceptions) between 1683 and 1720, and sporadically since then, these works are indistinguishable in structure from the contemporaneous cantata.

ode, an elaborately formal lyric poem, often in the form of a lengthy ceremonious address to a person or abstract entity, always serious and elevated in tone. There are two different classical models: Pindar's Greek choral odes devoted to public praise of athletes (5th century BCE), and Horace's more privately reflective odes in Latin (c. 23–13 BCE). Pindar composed his odes for performance by a chorus, using lines of varying length in a complex three‐part structure of strophe, antistrophe, and epode corresponding to the chorus's dancing movements (see Pindaric), whereas Horace wrote literary odes in regular stanzas. Close English imitations of Pindar, such as Thomas Gray's ‘The Progress of Poesy’ (1754), are rare, but a looser irregular ode with varying lengths of strophes was introduced by Abraham Cowley's ‘Pindarique Odes’ (1656) and followed by John Dryden, William Collins, William Wordsworth (in ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality’ (1807)), and S. T. Coleridge, among others; this irregular form of ode is sometimes called the Cowleyan ode. Odes in which the same form of stanza is repeated regularly (see homostrophic) are called Horatian odes: in English, these include the celebrated odes of John Keats, notably ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ and ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ (both 1820).

Adjective: odic.

Ballet-oratorio in two acts with choreography by Massine, libretto by Kochno, music by Nabokov, designs by Pavel Tchelitchev (sets and costumes) and Pierre Charbonnier (projections). Premiered 6 June 1928 by the Ballets Russes de Diaghilev at the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt in Paris, with Irina Beliankina and Serge Lifar. The ballet was based on a hymn by the 18th-century Russian court poet Lomonosov which was dedicated to Empress Elizabeth, who ruled Russia from 1741 to 1762. It shows a student's destructive effect on the harmony of nature, represented by a statue which comes to life. The ballet made use of the latest technology, including neon lights and film projections. But despite its revolutionary stage effects, Ode never achieved great popularity and it was quickly dropped from the repertoire.

ode (Gk. ōdē, ‘song’), in Greek or Latin, a lyric poem in stanza form (see STROPHE and TRIAD).

Ode (from Greek ōdē, a poem to be sung, and thus a generic term for the lyric). In condemning the ballade and other medieval formes fixes as ‘épiceries’, Du Bellay recommended in the Défense: ‘Sing me those odes, still unknown to the French muse, with a lute well tuned to the Greek and Roman lyre, and let no sound be without some mark of rare and ancient learning.’ Ronsard's five books of odes (1550-3) draw on the two large strains of odal inspiration: the Pindaric, with its mode of heroic celebration, its monumental triadic structures (strophe, antistrophe, epode), its cultivation of the sublime style, of mythological references, erudite allusion, apostrophes, invocations, and the impassioned public voice; and the Horatian (incorporating the Anacreontic), with its formal and thematic variety, epicurean leanings, quiet pleasure in the rural environment, and cultivation of the commonplace concerns of the private citizen, expressed with a mixture of affection and irony.

As the Pindaric ode developed in France, the tenline isometric structure, the so-called dizain isométrique classique (ababccdeed, usually in octosyllables) favoured by Malherbe became a privileged vehicle for exploring religious and philosophical topoi both in the 17th c. (e.g. Racine, Cantiques spirituels) and in the 18th (e.g. Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, Odes). One still finds this form occasionally in the odes of Lamartine and Hugo, but in very mixed company. The attractions of the dizain lie in its combination of all basic rhyme-schemes (rimes croisées, rimes plates, rimes embrassées); after the forward-moving developmental phase of the first four lines, the strophe reaches a fulcrum, or moment of suspension, at the couplet, before achieving the encompassing finality of the last four lines.

But alongside the Pindaric, the Horatian ode developed a multitude of shorter and often heterometric stanzas. Among these should be mentioned the ‘shortened’ form of the dizain, a sixain rhyming aabccb which often assumed the grander tones of the Pindaric (e.g. J.-B. Rousseau's ‘Sur l'aveuglement des hommes du siècle’), but which equally addressed pastoral and amorous subjects (André Chénier). The lighter ode reached its paroxysm with Banville's Odes funambulesques (1857). Ironically this collection has among its pages, masquerading as odes, precisely those fixed forms (rondeaux, triolets, villanelles) decried by the Pléiade in favour of the ode. [See Versification.]

[Clive Scott]

A kind of poem devoted to the praise of a person, animal, or thing. An ode is usually written in an elevated style and often expresses deep feeling. An example is “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” by John Keats.

A type of lyric or melic verse, usually irregular rather than uniform, generally of considerable length, and sometimes continuous, sometimes divided in accordance with transitions of thought and mood in a complexity of stanzaic forms; it often has varying iambic line lengths with no fixed system of rhyme schemes and is always marked by the rich, intense expression of an elevated thought, often addressed to a praised person or object.

Tutor's tip: Odes were originally meant to be sung.

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• Schools, Styles, and Forms - ode: lyric poem marked by exalted feeling, varying line length, and complexity of form

This article is about the form of lyrical verse. For other uses, see Ode (disambiguation).

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)

Ode (from the Ancient Greek ὠδή) is a type of lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also exist. It is an elaborately structured poem praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally.

Greek odes were originally poetic pieces accompanied by symphonic orchestras. As time passed on, they gradually became known as personal lyrical compositions whether sung (with or without musical instruments) or merely recited (always with accompaniment). For some, the primary instrument of choice was either the aulos or the lyre (the latter of which was the most revered instrument to the Ancient Greeks). The written ode, as it was practiced by the Romans, returned to the lyrical form of the Lesbian lyricists.

There are three typical forms of odes:the Pindaric, Horatian, and irregular. Pindaric odes follow the form and style of Pindar. Horatian odes follow conventions of Horace; the odes of Horace deliberately imitated the Greek lyricists such as Alcaeus and Anacreon. Odes by Catullus, as well as other poetry of Catullus, was particularly inspired by Sappho. Irregular odes are rhyming, but they do not employ the three-part form of the Pindaric ode nor the two- or four-line stanza of the Horatian ode.

Contents 1 English ode 2 Notable practitioners of the ode 3 References 4 External links

English ode

An ode is typically a lyrical verse written in praise of, or dedicated to someone or something which captures the poet's interest or serves as an inspiration for the ode.

The initial model for English odes was Horace, who used the form to write meditative lyrics on various themes. The earliest odes in the English language, using the word in its strict form, were the Epithalamium and Prothalamium of Edmund Spenser.

In the 17th century the most important original odes in English are those of Abraham Cowley and Andrew Marvell. Marvell, in his Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland uses a regular form (two four-foot lines followed by two three-foot lines) modelled on Horace, while Cowley wrote "Pindarique" odes which had irregular patterns of line lengths and rhyme schemes, though they were iambic. The principle of Cowley's Pindariques was based on a misunderstanding of Pindar's metrical practice but was widely imitated nonetheless, with notable success by John Dryden.

With Pindar's metre being better understood in the 18th century, the fashion for Pindaric odes faded, though there are notable actual Pindaric odes by Thomas Gray, The Progress of Poesy and The Bard.

The Pindarick of Cowley was revived around 1800 by William Wordsworth for one of his very finest poems, the Intimations of Immortality ode; irregular odes were also written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, and Percy Bysshe Shelley who wrote odes with regular stanza patterns. Shelley's Ode to the West Wind, written in fourteen line terza rima stanzas, is a major poem in the form, but perhaps the greatest odes of the 19th century were Keats's Five Great Odes of 1819 which included Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on Melancholy, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to Psyche, and To Autumn. After Keats, there have been comparatively few major odes in English. One major exception is the fourth verse of the poem For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon which is often known as "The Ode to the Fallen" or more simply as "The Ode".

W.H. Auden also wrote 'Ode', one of his most popular poems from his earlier career when based in London, in opposition to people's ignorance over the reality of war. In interview Auden once stated that he had intended to title the poem My Silver Age in mockery of the supposedly imperial Golden age, however chose 'Ode' as it seemed to provide a more sensitive exploration of warfare.

The English ode's most common rhyme scheme is ABABCDECDE.

Notable practitioners of the ode

• John Keats
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• William Wordsworth
• Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Edmund Spenser
• Pablo Neruda
• Horace
• Catullus
• Ovid
• Sappho
• Rudyard Kipling
• Emily Dickinson

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gosse, Edmund (1911). "Ode". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• 'Ode' - JPiC Forum For Writers Glossary Term of the Day
•  "Ode". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920. 

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - ode

Nederlands (Dutch)
ode, lofdicht

Français (French)
n. - ode

Deutsch (German)
n. - Ode

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (προσωδ., μτφ.) ωδή

Italiano (Italian)
ode

Português (Portuguese)
n. - ode (m), poema (m)

Русский (Russian)
ода

Español (Spanish)
n. - oda

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - ode

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
颂诗, 赋

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 頌詩, 賦

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 송시, 길,도로

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 賦, 頌歌, オード

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) القصيدة الغنائيه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮שיר-תהילה, אודה, היסטורית: שיר של פנייה שנכתב כדי שיושר‬

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