Odes of Keats and Shelley
J.A. Cuddon, writing in The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Theory and Literary Terms, defines an ode as "a lyric poem, usually of some length . . . [which] features an elaborate stanza structure, a marked formality and stateliness in tone and style (which makes it ceremonious) and lofty sentiments and thoughts. In short, an ode is rather a grand poem, a full-dress poem" (Cuddon, 650). Because of this, one would expect odes to be very popular in the eighteenth century when poetry was very formal, and so they were. But surprisingly, we find that the ode was a favorite form of a number of Romantics of the nineteenth century, John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley among them. Both Keats and Shelley found in the formalism of the ode form a springing-off point for their Romantic thoughts.
