Have you ever had to urge to sing about something that you love? Then you might enjoy the poetic form of the Horatian ode. These are poems that are songs of praise that began as early as the 1st century BC. Here we will look at what a Horatian ode is, its structure and some famous examples.
Horatian ode: definition
An ode is a form of lyric poetry that is relatively short and used to celebrate a person, an idea or an event.
Lyric poetry is a traditional form of poetry which expresses a poet's emotions and feelings.
The word derives from the ancient Greek word aeidein, which translated means 'to sing'. The Horatian ode is one of the three common types of ode. The other two are the Pindaric and irregular ode.
A Pindaric ode is the ancient Greek form of lyric poetry formed by the poet Pindar (5th century BC). They have irregular meter patterns and rhyme schemes and consist of three sections.
Irregular odes are odes which do not follow Pindaric or Horation forms and have irregular meter and stanzas.
The Horatian ode is made up of either two or four-line stanzas and has a consistent rhyme scheme and meter.
Horatian odes take their name and form from the Roman poet Horace (1st century BC). Horatian odes differ from the more formal Pindaric ode as they would often meditate on more intimate subjects such as love or poetry itself. As a poet, Horace adapted Greek lyrics and meter into Latin, taking the irregular Greek meter and making it consistent throughout. In doing so, Horace created a new form of ode.
Horatian odes were popular among the Romantic poets, most famously with the poet John Keats.
The Romantics were a group of late 18th-century poets who believed in the power of the individual over the conventions of their time.
Some of the most well-known Horatian odes were written by John Keats, such as 'Ode to a Nightingale' (1819) and 'Ode on Autumn' (1820). All odes, Pindaric, Horatian or irregular, are used to celebrate either an individual, idea or object.
Fig. 1 - Horatian odes were created in Ancient Rome.
Horatian ode: characteristics
Here will look at some of the common characteristics of the Horatian ode. We will also look at how they differ from the other types of ode.
Celebration
The purpose of the original Greek (or Pindaric) ode was a celebration of an athletic victory in ancient Greece. The tradition of odes being used to celebrate remains in all forms today, but the difference with Horatian odes is the celebration of more personal subjects. The poet could choose to celebrate abstract ideas like in the poem 'Ode on Solitude' (1700) by Alexander Pope or physical objects like John Keats' 'Ode to a Nightingale'.
Intimate subjects
While the Pindaric ode was used to perform a public celebration of a person or event, the Horatian odes were intended to be more personal. The Horatian ode's choice of intimate subjects and regular meter aimed to present poems that are more tranquil rather than bombastic. John Keats' poem 'Ode on Autumn' (1820) is a reflection on both the beauty of the season and the speaker's own melancholy.
Less formal
Pindaric odes have a strict structure where the poem is divided into three sections called a strophe, an antistrophe and an epode. The epode would follow a different meter from the rest of the poem. The Horatian ode does not have such a strict structure; there is no limit on the number of stanzas or its meter or rhyme scheme, only that they are consistent throughout the poem.
Horatian ode: structure
As mentioned previously, the Horatian ode dismissed the strict structure of the Pindaric ode. But this does not mean the Horatian ode is without any formal structure. It consists of stanzas of either quatrains or couplets.
A quatrain is a stanza that is made up of four lines, often with alternating end rhymes.
A couplet is two lines that have the same end rhyme and length.
Many Horatian odes use formal meter and rhyme schemes with the stipulation that they do not change. If a poem is written in the iambic pentameter, then the poem will use iambic pentameter throughout.
Iambic pentameter is a form of meter where each line has five pairs of syllables known as iambs. The iambs would have an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
The same applies to the poem's rhyme scheme. If an ode has a rhyme scheme of AABB (using rhyming couplets), then the poem will have couplets throughout the whole of it. We will look at an example from Andrew Marvell's 'An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell's Return From Ireland' (1650).
'Tis time to leave the books in dust (A)
And oil th' unused armour's rust, (A)
Removing from the wall (B)
The corslet of the hall. (B)
The only rules for the structure of Horatian odes are that they consist of quatrains or couplets and that if using meter or a rhyme scheme, it is consistent.
Horatian ode: poems
Here we will look at some of the more famous examples of the Horatian ode.
'Ode to a Nightingale' (1819)
Perhaps the most famous example of a Horatian ode is the romantic poet John Keats' 'Ode to a Nightingale'. The speaker of the poem is listening to the nightingale's song in a dark forest. While entranced by the nightingale's song, the speaker muses on nature, beauty and death. Keats' ode is written in the iambic pentameter with a regular rhyme scheme of ABABCDECDE.
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: Lines 1-4
Here we can clearly see the poem's rhyme scheme and meter in the opening lines.
Fig. 2 - The nightingale provided inspiration for one of the most famous Horatian odes.
'Ode on Solitude' (1700)
It has been claimed that Alexander Pope wrote the poem 'Ode on Solitude' when only twelve years old. The poem speaks of the benefits of diligent work and solitude and the happiness they can bring. The speaker goes on to refer to how they would rather die alone and unknown rather than celebrated. The poem has a rhyme scheme of ABAB and is written in the iambic tetrameter.
Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air,
In his own ground. Lines 1-4
Iambic tetrameter is a metrical form which has four pairs of syllables in each line. Like the iambic pentameter, these pairs are made of an unstressed syllable followed by one that is stressed.
'An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell's Return From Ireland' (1650)
Andrew Marvell's poem uses the famous English statesman Oliver Cromwell as its subject. The poem's theme is almost similar to the more traditional Pindaric ode. The poem celebrates Cromwell's military victories against the Irish and his 'heroic' return. The poem then goes on to criticise King Charles I, deeming him unfit to rule. The poem consists of quatrains, each made up of two rhyming couplets.
The forward youth that would appear
Must now forsake his Muses dear,
Nor in the shadows sing
His numbers languishing. Lines 1-4
Horatian ode: analysis
Horace created what was then known as carminas but are now commonly known as Horatian odes. The Horatian ode dispensed with the strict and inconsistent structure used in Pindaric odes to create odes that were less spontaneous and more ordered. The more ordered form of the poem made their tone more restrained. This allowed poets to address more intimate subjects such as love and relationships rather than heroic tales of victory.
The Horatian ode is less passionate than the Pindaric that came before it, it is more contemplative, and this is reflected in the subjects of the poems. Horatian odes often meditate on the beauty of nature and its sometimes melancholic effects. Where the odes focus less on the celebration of people or events, they are seen as a more personal form of poetry.
Horatian Ode - Key takeaways
- The Horatian ode is one of the three forms of the ode; they are poems used to commemorate a person, idea or object.
- The poems take their name and form from the Roman poet Horace (1st century BC).
- Horatian odes have no strict structure but consist of either quatrains or couplets.
- The three characteristics of a Horatian ode are; celebration, intimate subjects and less formality.
- Horatian odes were popular with Romantic poets, particularly John Keats.
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