Literary notes about ode (AI summary)
The word “ode” has long denoted a lyrical form that transcends eras and genres, serving various expressive functions in literature. In antiquity, poets like Horace and Sappho employed the ode as a vehicle for tribute and personal reflection, as seen in Horace’s odes addressing patrons and celebrating the simple republican virtues [1][2]. Over time, the format evolved—its structured elements (strophe, antistrophe, and epode) being formally recognized and explored by scholars and poets alike [3]—and its range expanded from sacred hymns and political manifestos (such as odes to Liberty and Duty) to more intimate, even humorous, compositions [4][5]. Later writers, including Coleridge and Milton, continued to adapt the form for both philosophical inquiry and aesthetic pleasure, enduringly reinforcing the ode’s role as a dynamic mode of literary expression [6][7].
- [ Probably the Septimius to whom Horace addressed the ode beginning Septimi, Gades aditure mecum.—Ode xl. b. i.]
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius - Amongst the best of his productions, is a translation of the celebrated ode of Sappho: Ille mi par esse Deo videtur, me, etc.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius - Of the three parts of the ode, the strophe , the antistrophe , and the epode , each was to be sung at a particular part of the procession.
— from The symbolism of Freemasonry : by Albert Gallatin Mackey - He had a revolutionary streak in his nature, as his Ode to Liberty and other bits of verse and his intimacy with the Decembrist rebels show.
— from Best Russian Short Stories - Ode to Duty.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - " And page 352 to 354 of the same ode.
— from Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge - In this fragment, from the "Ode to the West Wind," we have a suggestion of Shelley's own spirit, as reflected in all his poetry.
— from English Literature by William J. Long
