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.
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.
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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
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L. L. Barkat says
I love the cat especially. He makes me laugh 🙂
Poetry has such an interesting history. (And you make it all the more fun in the present.)
Will Willingham says
Thanks. 🙂 I liked the socks.
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.
Will Willingham says
This is great, Richard. 🙂 Really liked “keep me with you, flesh and bone, or light/flickering in the grass, like fireflies in a jar.”
And thanks for sharing the graphic on your site. 🙂
Richard Maxson says
Thank you.
Richard Maxson says
That’s a fun one, Maureen. And I love the info-graphic and have it on my website.
Maureen Doallas says
You doth surpass yourself. Really wonderful. And the cat: what fun!
Teachers of poetry should be using your infographics.
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. 😉
Sandra Heska King says
I was just combing through my archives and found this I wrote in response to this photo-poetry challenge. Remember?
https://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/2011/05/31/whats-a-poem-worth/
Ode to Yogurt
We met at the
crossroads of the coolers
in the middle of the aisle
you so strawberry sweet
thick and creamy smooth
a ninety-nine cent bargain
culture in a spoon.
Will Willingham says
Was this the 99 cent prompt, Sandy? I think I remember the yogurt poem.
The 99 cent prompt was the one referenced in my desperate housewives poem that started this whole poetry thing for me. 😉
Sandra Heska King says
Yep, it was. 🙂
L. L. Barkat says
Well, look at that. Less than a dollar to change a life 😉
(I remember that yogurt poem! Fun.)
Megan Willome says
This helps so much! I’ve had an ode poem in mind but wasn’t sure how to go about it. Now I have inspiring artwork!