Ronsardian Ode

[Tinker]

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:

1. stanzaic, written in any number of 9 line stanzas.
2. syllabic, 10-4-10-4-10-10-4-4-8 syllables per line.
3. 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