Ode

John Hollander in Rhyme’s Reason: A Guide to English Verse (Yale University Press, 1981) exemplifies his various themes with examples he’s composed himself. Here he introduces us the the choral ode: A choral odein ancient Greece was morethan just a verse form: for each section(like this one), called a strophewas sung — not recited — and danced,and the dancers were singers.These words to their music movedwith the dancers in one direction,then finished their patternat the end of part of what they had to say.The second partof every section thenwould have the same tune, the same rhythm,the strophe had, and thereforethe whole antistrophe would move with a parallel motion.(This matching of verse to verseis referred to as contrafactum.)The dancers moved back thenas they sang with those same steps the other way.And then a last, unpatching sectioncalled an epode, or standing,followed the strophe (or "turn")and the antistrophe (or "counterturn")and, rather more simply, perhaps,completed the…