what is an Ode in literature? what are its features? what are its types?

what is an Ode in literature? what are its features? what are its types?

what is an Ode in literature?

           Ode has its origin in the ancient Greek and Roman literature. At the earliest stage, it was written to be sung with music chorus. At the time, the ode had three pasts Strophe- to be sang by chorus moving to the left in a gesture of dance; Antistrophe to be sung moving to the night and “Epode” to be sung standing still. But an ode, in modern times, means a lyrical poem at serious subject and elevated tone, written generally  to shower praise upon some abstract concept are some an animate objects. Though it originated in ancient times, it became a popular form of poetry in England during the romantic age in the hands of such great poets as Wordsworth, Shelley  and Keats.

what are its types?

There are three types of ode in English literature from the ancient times--

1 .Pindaric: The Pindaric ode is divided into three triads: 

    Strophe- to be sang by chorus moving to the left in a gesture of dance;

 Antistrophe- to be sung moving to the night;

 “Epode” to be sung standing still.

Antistrophe, and an Epode. The strophe and Antistrophe will follow

The same stanza structure and the epode will have its own.

An example of pindaric ode is

The Progress of poesy” by

Thomas Gray.

2. Horatian: The Horatian ode often is composed of stanzas that are of the same length and follow a rhyme pattern and meter.

An example of the Horatian ode is John Keat’s  “To Autumn”.

3. Irregular: The irregular ode follows no stanza pattern or rhyme scheme, and this allows the poet a great freedom in composing this type of poem.

The poem “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” by William Wordsworth is an example of an irregular ode.

 

 what are its features?

                 If  We go through the body of English odes, written during different periods, we find certain common features.

1.   An ode is a serious form of poem which celebrates the deep reflections of the poet on any subject. An ode deals primarily with the different aspects of the subject, and that subject may vary from any human being. Any abstract thought or any nonliving object or even the subject from initial response, through deep meditation perception on life.

 2.   The style of the poem is very important as serious subject needs elevated treatment so the poet uses highly decorative language with the help of such figure of speech as vision, allusion, metaphor, symbol imagery, and, alliteration to produce desired effect. More over, an ode is divided in stanzaic form of equal length. Some times the poet uses irregular metre, stanzaic division and equal number of syllables and feet for variation.

 

  3.  The best of the odes have been written in the romantic period. The ode written during the period show a loftiness of thought, Treatment and execution. In most of them, the duality between the ideal and the real forms of the core feature. More over the odes display a Highly imaginative vision of the natural World. Which appears to be pictures and vivid. Again the emotional intensity intellectually analised   finds remarkable expression in the ode.

 4.  Structurallly, an ode depicts the thought in a climatic honour reaching the zenith to reflection towards the end. Generally, iambic metre is used though trochaic variation may also be found . In Shelley’s ode to a skylark’ the poet has used four short lines with three feet . And the final fifth line with iambic hepta metre to produce almost a dramatic effect.

5.   An ode is in the form of praise and so the poet uses a number of objectives with sometime strains into tautology. The most interesting features of ode is the sung of mode of the poet from sorrow to joy, pessimism to optimism claim serenity to will jubilation from ecstacy to eament. Thus, an ode offers the poet to delve deep into the meaning of the subject. In an ode, a poet is a man speaking to men.