ENGLISH ODE ESSAY - LITERATURE
Outline:
1. Introduction.
2. Kinds of Odes:
(a) Pindaric
Odes.
(b) Lesbian or
Horatian Ode.
(c) Ode in
English literature.
3. Historical study of the Ode:
(a) Ode to a
Nightingale.
(b) Ode on a
Grecian Urn.
(c) Ode on Melancholy.
(d) Ode to
Autumn.
4. Conclusion.
The Ode is a lyric poem
which articulates exalted or enthusiastic emotion in respect of a theme which
is decorous and it does so in a metrical form which is as a rule complex or
irregular. An ode is expected to show an unusually free flow of feeling and
imagery; in view of this the poet, who must be full of his subject if he has
any actual warmth of genius, will sing without kerb of control, and the
structure of his verse will be such as will permit him to do so. Sir Edmund
Gosse in the introduction to his English Odes remarked:
"Any strain of enthusiastic and
exalted lyrical verse, directed to a fixed determination, and dealing increasingly
with one dignified theme."
Pinder, the Greek poet,
was the greatest writer of Odes in antiquity; because of the inspiring and
soaring qualities of his poetry, he was compared to an eagle. Among the Romans,
Horace is the most skilful writer of Odes; his imaginative flight or rapture is
less than that of Pinder, but he surpasses grace and elegance.
An Ode can be
differentiated from a lyric. Whereas the lyric is concerned with a single phase
of emotion, the ode deals with numerous phases, each expressed in a stanza or in
paragraph form. It is then an expression of intense usually sublime emotion and
combines dignity of thought with elevation and complexity of form.
Distinguishing Features
Of The Ode:
The following are the distinguishing features of the Ode:
- It is dignified in subject-matter, and greater in tone and style. Neither the theme nor its treatment can be unimportant or undignified. The poet is grave both in the choice of his subject and the manner of its performance. He must demonstrate himself at the height of his power.
- It
is lengthier than the lyric proper, for the feeling it exemplifies of a kind
that confesses of development. It does not, comparable to the lyric, aim at giving
the result of an accidental one. It may be full of deep and genuine emotion but
its appearance is predictable to be much more consciously intricate, impressive
and verbose.
- Unlike
other procedures of the verse, it is often addressed directly to the being or
subject it luxuries of. The opening lines sometimes cover an apostrophe or plea,
which is characteristic of the whole action of the poem. Shelley's
"Ode to the West Wing" begins, with "O Wild West
Wind": Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn": "Thou still
unravished bride of quietness" Tennyson's 'To Virgil thou that Singest and
so on. The mode is preserved throughout each case.
- Occasionally
it has for its theme an important public affair like a national jubilee, the
death of an illustrious personage, or the memorial of the founding of a great
University. Marvell's "Upon Cromwell's Arrival from Ireland and Tennyson's
"Ode on the death of the Duke of Wellington" are illustrations in
point.
kinds of odes:
The following kinds of odes are
discussed here:
1. Pindaric Ode,
2. Lesbian or Horatian Ode.
1. Pindaric Odes:
These are so-called because the Cowleys, Gray and others sought to construct
their ode on the model of Pindar's without having correctly understood the system
upon which Odes were built. To them, the Odes of Pindar seared very irregularly
in verse and arrangement. They had no idea that there is nothing more regular
than the odes of Pindar, and that they are composed in elaborate measures, each
of them maintaining consistency of form. The result of this misconception was
a set of odes wholly loose and undisciplined in _____________ form and measure.
They are on the whole, artificial production because though they aim at
preserving the ancient form, they are not faithful to the spirit of that age or
its complicated harmonies and technique. Gray's "The Bard" and
"The Progress of Poesy" are examples of Pindaric Odes.
2. Lesbian or Horatian Ode.
The Lesbian Ode was similar in form to the Pindaric and had therefore proved
easier to imitate. As exemplified in English verse, it comprises a number of
petite stanzas, similar in length and procedure. The action is direct and distinguished,
and the thought is obviously developed. It was promoted in Latin by two great Roman
writers:
- Horace, and
- Catullus.
The works of Horace in
particular helped as a model to English followers of the form, and English Odes
of this kind are commonly known as "Horatian Odes', a practice that ends to
obscure their Greek origin. The following two stanzas from Marvell's "Upon
Cromwell's Return from Ireland", which is a Lesbian, or as the author
termed it "Horatian Ode," illustrate its characteristics:
He
nothing common did or mean
Upon
that memorable scene,
But
with his keener eye
The
axe's edge did try.
Nor
called the gods with vulgar spite,
To
vindicate his helpless right,
But
bow'd his comely head.
Down,
as upon a bed.
Except for a few efforts
in the Pindaric or the Horatian form, the English Ode has chased a course of
its own as regards subject matter and chic, conduct and outlook, not strictly
bound by classical traditions. It is regular, consisting of a series of exactly
similar stanzas, like the Odes of Shelley and Keats, of
irregular, when each stanza follows a different arrangement, as in Wordsworth's
"Immortality Ode" and several of the Odes of Tennyson
and Robert Bridges.
1. Ode to A Nightingale.
This poem has organic unity which links up the succession of the vivid pictures into
a progression, ideas that culminate in the magic of the last two stanzas. Each
stanza catches up on some word or suggestion from that which precedes it and uses
this as its theme.
In the first stanza,
the poet refers to his feeling as being akin to that of a person who has drunk
opiate. He plays upon this idea of drinking, and, in the second stanza, calls
for "a draught of vintage so that he may fade away, leaving the world
unseen.
The word
"gloom" reminds him in the following stanza that he cannot see that
flowers are at his feet but he can only guess floral beauty which he knows must
surround him. Through his enchanted dark, the song of the nightingale floats
out to him and, as he listens, he thinks how lovely it will be to die at that
moment of happiness. The thought of his own death suggests to him the thought
of the immortality of the bird, whose song has been heard since ages past
"by emperor and clown," the same that oft-times hath:
Charm'd
magic casements opening on the foam
Of
perilous seas in faery lands forlorn”.
2. Ode on A Grecian Urn.
In this great Ode, Keats attains a higher level of a rational idea than in
some other of his sonnets. Keats's famous exclamation:
“O
for a life of sensation rather than of thought,”
has been pressed too far by the critics
to show that he was merely a sensuous poet and that ideas were of no concern to
him. The present Ode eloquently refutes such a suggestion.
There is less personal emotion in this poem than in his other Odes, the only personal touch
being when he speaks of “the pain attendant on passion and pleasure”.
We track down in this
Tribute the verse of keenness as well as that of excellence. In this discussion
of the advantage possessed by plastic art over human life in the element of
permanence, he enters the realm of metaphysics; while in the celebrated words
which close the poem he treats the great ethical question of
“the
summon bonum of human existence as consisting in a knowledge of the equivalence
of Truth and Beauty.” (Downer)
But no philosophical
thought by itself can make a poem great unless it has genuinely poetic
qualities. The sensuousness of description, the soberly classical outlines and
definiteness of the imageries; the richness of suggestion and the human
interest which dominates it - are
like the element of the charm of this great ode. It is the most Hellenic of
Keats's poems. The passion for beauty which was the dominant passion of Keats
finds its consummate expression in the celebrated closing line. No inquietude of
spirit mixings its profound calm. It is altogether free from melancholy.
Keats's felicity of diction and economy of expression are nowhere in better
evidence than in this unique poem.
“For
the nightingale today
With
Spring has come.”
The atmosphere of this
stanza is drenched with classical allusion. Is not Flora, the Roman goddess of
flowers arid spring? Is not Hippocrence that fountain in Mt. Helicon, sacred to
the Muses?
In the third stanza, we
are back again in the mood of melancholy
“the weariness, the fever and the fret.”
The next few stanzas
show us the mood gathering itself for that final leap to the most marvellous
verse perhaps in all lyric poetry, beginning
“thou was not born for death, immortal
bird!”
3. Ode on Melancholy. This
fragmentary Ode consists of three unequal stanzas - unequal, not in the
magnificence of imagery or verbal felicity but in thought contents, the second
stanza striking a somewhat false note towards the end. But the perfection of
workmanship, for which the Odes of Keats make a new genre of lyrics in English
poetry, is in evidence here too, as in the much greater Odes:
1. “To A Nightingale",
2. “On A Grecian Urn”.
As regards the thought contents of the poem, two things are particularly noticeable:
First, in it the young
poet nicely presents the subtle psychology of melancholy, diving deep into the secret recesses of the origin of emotions. He associates it boldly but with what
he himself feels and knows to be its correlative, alternating emotion the tender
emotion of joy in the perception of beauty. The discernment in this
Ode," as Robert Bridges appreciates, is profound and no doubt experienced.
Secondly, there is a clear indication here, as also in the great “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, that the new
artist’s love for elegance is not any more simply erotic, however, it is
presently state-of-the-art by gifted and erudite discernment. It is chiefly for
the logic that Swinburne calls this Ode, more than all the others,
“the subtlest in the sweetness of thought
and feeling.”
4. Ode to Autumn.
This
Ode is characteristically Greek in spirit. Keats exhibits a delight in the
small homely things of nature without any tinge of melancholy or intellectual
restlessness such as he gives to the “Ode to a Grecian Urn" and to the “Ode
to a Nightingale” their impossible-to-miss tone of thought and feeling. Images
are selected so as to elicit emotion from the reader they are not charged with
any feeling by the poet. He gives the object of feeling and not the feeling
itself, as is usual with Keats and other romantic poets. There is little or
no reflectiveness, no philosophy, no landscape painting, no allegory, just
nature herself in all. Of tint and form brought face-to-face to the reader.
Speaking of the
versification of Keats's Odes, Oliver Elton remarks: “Generally, Keats tries to
concentrate, as far as ever the law of beauty permits; every line is like a
bough that is weighed down with fruit to the breaking point. This effort is
best seen in the most impeccable of all, “To Autumn. The scented landscape in
the first stanza and the symphony of natural sounds in the third would have
been enough for most poets, but the effect would have been dispersed or
confused without the slowly moving or resting figures, in the central verse, of
the winnower and the gleaner; these make the picture human and universal; for
the eternal labours of man, as he makes the most of nature is retained before
the eye by a deep disposition for plastic arrangement.”
Etymologically, the
word Ode means “a song”. Among the Greeks, the Ode was originally a poem written
to be sung to an instrumental accompaniment, supported by a chorus. In the
fifth and sixth centuries before Christ, it was developed as a stately and
elaborate measure in lyrical poetry by Ponder's most famous Odes to celebrate the
Olympian games. The Ode in its normal form was written in groups of three
stanzas and contained three such parts. Most of the victory odes devoted the
first part to the subject, the second to a mythological development, and the third
to a eulogy of the victor, frequently accompanied by moral reflections and
dissertations.
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