Editing Ode (section)

=== Irregular Odes ===
Irregular odes further break down the ode's formal conventions. They are sometimes called Cowleyan odes after the English [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] poet [[Abraham Cowley]], who revived the form in England with his publication of fifteen ''Pindarique Odes'' in 1656. Though this title derives from Pindar, it is a misunderstanding of the Pindaric ode on Cowley's part. In fact, Cowley's odes are very different from the strictly formal Pindaric ode.

In Cowley's poetry, the ode follows an [[Iamb (foot)|iambic]] metre, but employs no regular rhyme or line length.

The 'pindarique' was employed by [[John Milton]] in the chorus of his lyrical tragedy, [[Samson Agonistes]] (1670/71). However, he corrects Cowley's misunderstanding of the form as Pindaric in his 'Preface':

: "''The measure of verse used in the chorus is of all sorts, called by the Greeks 'monostrophic', or rather 'apolelymenon', without regard had to strophe, antistrophe or epode, which were a kind of stanzas framed only for the music, then used with the chorus that sung; not essential to the poem and therefore not material; or, being divided into stanzas or pauses, they may be called 'alloeostropha'."''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Milton |first=John |title=Milton: Poetical Works |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1966 |editor-last=Bush |editor-first=Douglas |location=Oxford |pages=518}}</ref>