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Ode

Form
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An ode is a formal, often ceremonious lyric poem that addresses and praises a person, event, or abstract ideal with elevated diction and structure.

Explore this topic in depth (2)

Romanticism — Romanticism was not simply a love of nature or strong feeling. It was a varied poetic response to revolution, industrial change, scientific thought and new questions about the individual mind, freedom and humanity’s place in the world.

Lyric Poetry — Lyric poetry is a broad poetic mode, not a fixed form or simply another name for song lyrics. Discover how lyrics shape experience through voice, sound, address and movement—and how reading and listening can reveal their workings.

Detailed Definition
An ode is a formal, often ceremonious lyric poem that addresses and often celebrates a person, event, or abstract concept with elevated language and complex stanzaic structures; notable examples include Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale” and Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind,” which blend personal emotion with philosophical reflection.
Example
Example in poetry:
Ode: Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” contemplates art’s permanence; Pablo Neruda’s “Odes to Common Things” praise onions, socks, and tomatoes; Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” invokes natural force as poetic inspiration; contemporary poet Tracy K. Smith’s “Ode” reimagines the form for everyday resilience; odes traditionally use elevated diction, irregular stanzas, and apostrophe; they celebrate or meditate on subjects ranging from sublime to mundane.
Additional Notes
Ode: A formal, often ceremonious lyric poem addressing a person, event, or object; typically elevated in tone; includes Pindaric (strophic), Horatian (uniform stanzas), and irregular odes.
Also Known As
Celebratory hymn Praise poem Lyric address Formal celebration
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