The Keatsian or English Ode

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The Ode 
English Verse

The Keatsian or English Ode is a stanzaic form which appears to be the result of John Keats' experimentation with the sonnet. It reflects a merging of the Sicilian quatrain and Italian sestet from the same-named sonnets. In theme, purpose, and sincerity it follows that of all Odes.

The Keatsian Ode differs from the Horatian Ode in that its structure of line and stanza is a set pattern of meter, rhyme, and length, while the Horatian Ode's is "nonce" stanzaic, the structure patterned is at the discretion of the poet.

The elements of the Keatsian or English Ode are:

1. metered, accentual-syllabic verse, primarily in iambic pentameter.  In exception, Ode to a Nightingale written with L8 of each stanza in trimeter.
2. stanzaic, composed in 10 line stanzas. Usually written with between 3 and 8 stanzas.
3. rhymed. This strict version of the ode stanza combines a Sicilian quatrain (rhyme abab) with the Italian sestet (rhyme cdecde).
4. tranquil or contemplative.

   Ode on Melancholy   No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist        Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine; Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss'd        By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine;                Make not your rosary of yew-berries,        Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be                Your mournful Psyche, nor the downy owl A partner in your sorrow's mysteries;        For shade to shade will come too drowsily,                And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.   But when the melancholy fit shall fall        Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud, That fosters the droop-headed flowers all,        And hides the green hill in an April shroud; Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose,        Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave,                Or on the wealth of globed peonies; Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,        Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave,                And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.   She dwells with Beauty—Beauty that must die;        And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,        Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips: Ay, in the very temple of Delight        Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine,                Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue        Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine; His soul shalt taste the sadness of her might,                And be among her cloudy trophies hung.                                     ~~ John Keats English Poet, 1785-1821

   Ode to Poet John Keats  (1795 - 1821)                     " Beauty is truth, truth beauty,' -- that is all                         Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know"* Too soon a young and gifted poet died          but left behind his love for symmetry. His sonnet, ode and classic epic cried          with vivid color, tone,  in harmony. Appealing to our senses, sight, and sound          an ancient Grecian Urn he paints in Ode,                 a Cricket's song in English Sonnet frame. A Nightingale in measured verse is crowned           and through his Melancholy he bestowed                  to us a truth in beauty to proclaim.                                            ~~~Judi Van Gorder  *from Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats

   The Ode

   Odes named for poet or culture of their origin:

   Thematic Odes:
   • 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
   • 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