Genres & Forms
Ode
The ode is a solemn lyric poem that glorifies an eminent person, a significant event, a lofty idea, or a phenomenon, distinguished by an elevated, pathos-laden tone, a wealth of rhetorical figures, and a strophic structure. The genre descends from the ancient Greek choral song; its canon was established by Pindar (solemn odes honoring victors of the Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean Games) and by the Roman Horace. In the age of Classicism the ode became one of the leading 'high' genres. In Ukrainian literature the ode underwent a burlesque-travesty reinterpretation: Ivan Kotliarevsky, in his Song for the New Year 1805, parodies odic pathos. Later the solemn odic intonation was used by Pavlo Tychyna and Maksym Rylsky. In the world tradition famous odes include John Keats's Ode on a Grecian Urn and Friedrich Schiller's Ode to Joy.
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Meaning, origins and distinction — side by side.
Distinction
Two lyric genres, opposite in tonality. The elegy is a poem of meditative, contemplative and mournful mood: a reflection on the transience of life, loss, solitude, unfulfilled love or the fleetingness of beauty, in an intonation of quiet sorrow. The ode is a solemn, elevated poem glorifying a notable event, person or lofty idea with pathetic, festive exaltation. The elegy lowers the voice to personal grief; the ode raises it to civic or philosophical praise.
