Student Question
Can you explain the epode of "Ode: Intimations of Immortality"?
Quick answer:
The epode in "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" is not distinctly defined, as Wordsworth's ode follows a more Pindaric form with irregular structures rather than the traditional choral pattern. The poem features thematic progression from childhood joy to present despair, culminating in a rediscovery of joy through children and nature. This reflects the Romantic style, which often deviates from strict classical forms to emphasize emotional and thematic continuity.
A choral ode typically consists of a strophe, antistrophe, and epode, with the strophe and antistrophe having identical metrical patterns. The reason for this patterning had to do with the associated dance movements. In the strophe often the chorus would move in one direction, and then return to that position during the antistrophe by moving in the opposite direction.
When the Romantics appropriated the ode form, they actually imitated the Pindaric form more than the more narrowly constrained dramatic form of choral ode, and often simply use the term "ode" for poems with irregular forms. Nonetheless, the poem does show some traces of this structure, with several paired stanzas, but there isn't really a singular, well defined epode. As is often the case with Wordsworth, there is a thematic progression from some remembered childhood joy to present despair, followed by a rediscovery of joy in children and nature.
NB: The phrase "a poem should not mean, but be" is not from Eliot, but from "Ars Poetica" by Archibald MacLeish.
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