Tweetspeak Poetry

In Praise of the Ode (How to Write an Ode Infographic)

By 22 Comments

how to write an ode infographic

How to Write an Ode

By definition, the ode is a poem addressed to an object of one’s affection, whether a person, a place, a thing, or even an idea or feeling. Its roots go back to Greece in the 5th century BC, where the form was first introduced as performance poetry, complete with singers, dancers, an orchestra and a stage to go along with its complex structure. Today, you might read an ode extolling socks, thanks to Pablo Neruda.

As our ode theme winds down for the month of March, we invite you to give it one more try with our new In Praise of the Ode Infographic, created to help you learn about and how to write an ode. Maybe you’ll include the strophe, antistrophe and epode in your poem. Maybe you’ll hire a robed choir to perform it for you. Or perhaps you’ll just find some gadget in your kitchen drawer and write one as irregular as it is.
And don’t forget to try Maureen’s “Ode Finder.” Don’t peek at the answers.

3 Ways to be Ode-ish
PINDARIC: named for Greek poet Pindar in the 5th century BC, pindaric odes were performed by a chorus and dancers with the strophe sung or chanted by a chorus moving east to west across a stage. The ode turned on the antistrophe—sung west to east—then concluded with the epode.
HORATIAN: named for Roman poet Horace in the 1st century BC, horatian odes were formed by a series of stanzas with a consistent repeating structure.
IRREGULAR: irregular odes made their first appearance around the 17th century. Each stanza will have its own particular metrical structure and rhyme scheme.

How to Write an Ode
1. Choose something you love
2. Write a poem to it
3. Odes are often long, at least 5 stanzas
4. rhyme scheme and meter are up to you, though in traditional odes the first two stanzas were identical in structure and the third varied

What’s in Your Ode?
• strophe: the first stanza in a traditional ode
• antistrophe: the second stanza, identical in structure to the strophe, and features a turn
• epode: the final stanza, which takes on a different rhyme and meter

7 famous Ode-lers
1. Pindar
2. Horace
3. John Keats
4. Ben Jonson
5. Thomas Gray
6. Pablo Neruda
7. Pierre de Ronsard

Post and infographic by Will Willingham.

_______________________

How to Write a Poem 283 high How to Write a Poem uses images like the buzz, the switch, the wave—from the Billy Collins poem “Introduction to Poetry”—to guide writers into new ways of writing poems. Excellent teaching tool. Anthology and prompts included.

“How to Write a Poem is a classroom must-have.”
—Callie Feyen, English Teacher, Maryland

Buy How to Write a Poem Now!

Will Willingham
Follow Will
Latest posts by Will Willingham (see all)

About Will Willingham

I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel is Adjustments.

Comments

  2. Richard Maxson says

    I do not know much about odes, don’t know much biology, don’t know much about the French I took…oh, sorry, loved Sam Cooke. I was saying, I don’t know much about odes, but this prompt has been inspirational to see all the variation. So, here’s to a friend of mine:

    Ode To My Muse

    I have found you in mistaken words
    of songs, in the broken light
    of neighborhoods outside the town,

    where you walked with me,
    like an ambiguous angel, abiding
    and escaping along the lamps.

    I’ve seen you in the moments
    of pattering confusion,
    before dreams in the dimming day.

    You sing to me like the bird
    I cannot see that sends its litany
    into the here and everywhere.

    Stay with me, exasperating as you are;
    keep me with you, flesh and bone, or light
    flickering in the grass, like fireflies in a jar.

    Reply

    • Will Willingham says

      Thanks, Maureen. Thought grumpy cat had a place on the page. 😉

      My son came home one day and said one of the English teachers at his school was using the sonnet graphic. We’ll get them out there, one by one. 😉

      Reply

Trackbacks

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.