Explore the Craft of Writing Poetry The Ode French Verse
The Ronsardian Ode is the creation of a deaf, French poet Pierre de Ronsard (1524-1585). He was known as the Prince of Poets, a "romance" poet. Ronsard's work is musical, sensuous and pagan. Interesting that he was a cleric in minor orders and yet his poems focused more on the beauties and sorrows of his loves than spiritual matters. The structure of this stanzaic form is specific, like the Keatsian Ode it follows a uniform stanzaic pattern. It is its unique pattern that sets it apart.
The elements of the Ronsardian Ode are:
stanzaic, written in any number of 9 line stanzas.
syllabic, 10-4-10-4-10-10-4-4-8 syllables per line.
rhymed, rhyme scheme ababccddc. Ode to Rain by Judi Van Gorder
Great drops of water fall from clouds above
the heavens burst
with merciful evidence of God's love,
the rain came first.
Watching as the burden of the grey sky
unloads upon this earth, He heard our cry,
relieved our pain.
He sends the rain
our thirst is quenched, we heave a sigh.
We hear the wind-song of the clouds that spill
and send the rain
to soak the ground, restore the lakes and fill
the seas. The plane
that heals and succors sequoia and pine,
the great oak, magnolia, maple, grape-vine,
birch, conifer,
yucca and fir.
The rain that saves this earth of mine.
Links to other OdesThe Ode Odes named for poet or culture of their origin:
The Aeolic Ode
The Choral Ode or Pindaric Ode or Dorian Ode
The Anacreontic Ode
The Horatian Ode
The Irregular or Cowleyan Ode
The Keatsian or English Ode
The Ronsardian Ode
Thematic Odes:
Elegy, Obsequy, Threnody Ode
Elemental Ode
Genethliacum Ode
Encomium or Coronation Ode
Epithalamion or Epithalamium and Protholathiumis
Palinode Ode
Panegyric or Paean
Triumphal Ode
Occasional Verse