Poetry
This week: Ode: A Brief History and How-To Edited by: Red Writing Hood <3 More Newsletters By This Editor
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"Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance."
Carl Sandburg
"Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds."
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
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Ode: A Brief History and How-To
When I think of an ode it's as a celebration of something or someone. Indeed, references of things as an "ode to" almost always use it in this way or something similar.
BRIEF HISTORY
The ode was born of Greek drama, but the poet Pindar began using it as a poetic form, so he is usually credited as its inventor. This poem started out set to music and even had back up dancers.
I discovered several variations, but I will cover the construction of only five of them today.
MUST HAVES-Pindaric Ode (aka Choral Ode)
--Each line is ten syllables long.
--Three stanzas (or groups of three stanzas).
--The first two stanzas have the same rhyme scheme (any rhyme scheme, just be consistent), and the final stanza MUST be a completely different rhyme scheme.
(Turco 217)
COULD HAVES or WHAT IS THE POET'S CHOICE IN ALL THIS?
--Topic is up to you; however remember this poem traditionally celebrates something. Pindar usually used it for telling of the victories in the Olympic Games.
MUST HAVES-Horatian Ode
--Stanzas are either two or four lines each.
--Any rhyme scheme, just follow it throughout the poem.
--Any meter, just follow it throughout the poem.
COULD HAVES or WHAT IS THE POET'S CHOICE IN ALL THIS?
-- Topic is up to you; however Horace celebrated more intimate items when writing odes. "His odes were calmer, more philosophical, more personal, sometimes briefer." (Padgett 118).
MUST HAVES-English Ode (aka Keatsian Ode)
--Three stanzas (or groups of three stanzas).
--The meter used is iambic pentameter.
--Stanzas are ten lines each.
--Each stanza should be a different rhyme scheme.
(Williams 124)
COULD HAVES or WHAT IS THE POET'S CHOICE IN ALL THIS?
-- Topic is totally up to you.
MUST HAVES-Ronsardian Ode (Invented by Pierre de Ronsard)
--Stanzas are nine lines long (and you can have one or more stanzas).
--Rhyme scheme is: ABABCCDDC.
--Syllabic scheme is: 10, 4, 10, 4, 10, 10, 4, 4, 8 (the numbers refer to how many syllables in that line)
(Turco 219)
COULD HAVES or WHAT IS THE POET'S CHOICE IN ALL THIS?
-- Topic is totally up to you.
MUST HAVES-Irregular Ode
--Any rhyme, just follow it throughout the poem.
COULD HAVES or WHAT IS THE POET'S CHOICE IN ALL THIS?
--Any meter (or no set meter).
--Length can be long or short.
--Any topic.
(Padgett 119)
OF NOTE:
Some ode variations employ items called the strophe, antistrophe and epode. This is similar to the emotional tension in a play rising and falling and coming to a close. This is a simplified explanation, and once you get the formats down, you may want to explore this part of the ode.
There are other ode variations out there, but most are more about the theme or topic then they are about the format and construction. Some of these topical odes are: Epithalamion [aka Epithalamium-newly married/marriage], Genethliacum [birthdays], and Triumphal [victories] (Turco 220).
SOURCE NOTES:
Padgett, Ron. The Teachers & Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms. 2nd. NY: T & W Books, 2000.
Turco, Lewis. The Book of Forms. 3rd. Lebanon, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 2000.
Williams, Miller (1986). Patterns of Poetry: An Encyclopedia of Forms. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press.
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Comments on last month's newsletter:
By: troy ulysses davis
Comment: Very informative. Keep up the good work.
By: BIG BAD WOLF is Howling
"Elegy to Imagination" [E]
Comment: One must find the time.
By: Being Diane
Comment: Poetry like love is in the eye of the beholder. I have wrote a good bit of poetry but some people don't think it files under the genre of poetry. If these people have read Walt Whitman, Bronte, Emerson or ee cummings all would see poetry is different yet good in every area. On the thoughts of BLOGGING I am starting again..I have to without it my writing is failing. I love the book Creative Way which explains to us we should do morning pages everyday. Write on Ya'll, Diane
By: whimsicalme
Comment: Being a writer can be lonely business but advice and newsletters like these help with resources that one may never otherwise care or know to tap. Thank you.
By: Ganesh Prasad~Back Home
Comment: Here is my blog, which is devoted to poetry, paintings and ambigrams: http://www.neovisiona.blogspot.com
By: Fivesixer
Comment: Kåre เลียม Enga 's blog has been one of my favorites for a few years now. We've gotten to know each other through blogging through the last few years and it turns out he once lived in the same neighborhood I work in, and has personal connections to my girlfriend. Small world! Perhaps a link to the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" [13+] might've encouraged more readers in that direction as well.
Thanks for all the feedback, everyone! I'll continue my exploration into poetry blogging and report back to you. In the meantime, continue to send me your thoughts, links and comments.
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