Warm-up

Quiz retake

What is an ode and how do

I write one?

Learning Objective
Introduce poetic form of the ode
through Ode to My Socks. Students
will begin to draft their own ode.

The Ode
Odes were originally a form of Greek
lyrical poetry composed to honor
important people, places and events
and were accompanied by music.
Generally, odes can be thought of as
a formal address to an event, a
person, or a thing not present.

Three types of odes

Pindaric
Horatian
Irregular

Pindaric Ode
Named for ancient Greek poet, Pindar
(credited for inventing the ode in 500
B.C.)
Performed with a chorus and dancers
Were usually serious, dignified, and
celebrated great victories (athletic)
Composed of 3 very structured, intricate
stanzas/parts
Strophe, antistrophe, epode

Example
(Based on an extract from 'The Progress of Poesy' by Thomas
Gray)
Wake up, you little sleep head, awake
A
And give great joy to life that's found in dreams B
From Nature's most sweet sounding streams
B
A thousand turns their twisty journeys take
The dancing flowers, that above them blow
Breathe life and music as they flow C

A
C

Now the vast waves of sound drift along D

Deep, beautiful, vast and strong
D
Through the fields and vales and valleys they glide
And rolling down the mountain side E
Daring and carefree the water pours
F
From the highest edge they jump and falling, they roar.

Horatian Ode
Named for the Roman poet Horace
More tranquil and contemplative
(thoughtful) than the Pindaric Ode
Less formal, better suited to quiet
reading
The Horatian odes almost always repeat a single
stanza shape throughout the ode, based upon the
first stanza. However, the 'shape' of the stanza is
at the discretion of the poet.

Example
John Keats' 'Ode to a Nightingale' example below uses the
rhyme scheme of ABABCDECDE, which defines the shape of the
ode as 10 lines per stanza.
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains (A)
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, (B)
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains (A)
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: (B)
'Tis not through envy of the happy lot, (C)
But being too happy in thy happiness,- (D)
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees, (E)
In some melodious plot (C)
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless, (D)
Singest of summer in full-throated ease. (E)

Irregular Ode
Many formal and informal
possibilities
Some rhyme, some do not rhyme
Over the years, poets have adapted
the form by writing odes about more
commonplace items

Pablo Neruda
A famous Chilean poet, political activist,
diplomat, winner of the Nobel Prize in
Literature in 1971
Pioneered the irregular ode
Abandoned serious topics
Discarded rules about stanzas and meter
Wrote odes that sang the praises of
everyday life and ordinary objects: a
pair of socks, onions, a tomato, ironing, a
spoon, French fries, a bar of soap, a
storm, laziness.

Ode to my Socks
1) Why is the poem written in such short, choppy
lines? How does this relate to its subject matter?
2) How would the message of the poem be
different if the speaker decided to save the socks
and never wear them?
3) The socks are compared to several different
animals and objects in the poem. Which is the
most effective, in your opinion? Why?
4) Why do you think the poem is about socks? How
would it be different if it were about shoes, for
example?
5) The speaker says that socks are doubly good
and beautiful on a winter's day. What do you think
would define good and beauty on a summer day?