Use these guidelines when working on your odes:
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Your ode needs to be at least 12 lines or longer.
Remember odes give praise or thanks. (Oh, _____________!)
Try to capture your feelings about that object.
Use adjectives to describe your object.
Use verbs to bring that object to life.
Use repeated lines that are important to create an effect. (O heart! O heart!)
Use poetical elements like personification, similes, and metaphors to describe your item.
o Personification is when you give an inanimate object, like a rock or a tree, human characteristics.
Example: the sun breathed life into the earth. The sun cannot breathe. Humans breathe. This is
personification because you’re giving human characteristics to the sun. It also creates an image of the sun
breathing in the reader’s mind.
o Similes compare two unlike things to each other using the words like or as. Example, the snake slithered
like a ribbon through the grass. You’re comparing the name to a ribbon, using like to compare them. This
helps the reader picture the snake like a ribbon might look in the grass.
o Metaphors are like similes, only stronger. Metaphors compare two unlike things to each other without
using like or as. Metaphors simply state the one thing is the other thing. Example: the snake was a ribbon
in the grass. The snake isn’t really a ribbon, but the author uses a metaphor to compare the snake to the
ribbon to create an image in your mind.
Here are some examples of odes:
Ode to a Toad
Ode on a Unicycle
Unicycle, unicycle,
radiant and round.
Spying you, you spoke to me
without a single sound.
Unicycle, unicycle,
beautiful and kind,
like the petals on a flower
wheeling through my mind.
Unicycle, unicycle,
you're my one desire.
Losing you would break my heart.
Of you I'll never tire.
Unicycle, unicycle
always by my side.
That's, of course, because you are
impossible to ride.
I was out one day for my usual jog
(I go kinda easy, rarely full-hog)
When I happened to see right there on the
road
The squishy remains of a little green toad.
I thought to myself, where is his home?
Down yonder green valley, how far did he
roam?
From out on the pond I heard sorrowful croaks,
Could that be the wailing of some his folks?
I felt for the toad and his pitiful state,
But the day was now fading, and such was his
fate.
In the grand scheme of things, now I confess,
What’s one little froggie more or less?
Ode to Halloween
An Ode to Halloween
When you see a child
In a costume scary and wild
You know it is Halloween.
When kids go trick-or-treats
And get lots and lots of sweets
You know it is Halloween.
When the trees give up their yellow
leaves
And the dead give back their R.I.P.s
You know it is Halloween.
--Kenn Nesbitt
-Anne-Marie
An Ode to scrumptious snacks
An Ode to skeletons that clack
An Ode to Dracula
An Ode to tarantulas
An Ode to Halloween
An Ode to the year’s best time
An Ode to clocks that chime
An Ode to Halloween
-Andy Jin
Ode to My Socks
Ode to Books
Mara Mori brought me
a pair of socks
which she knitted herself
with her sheepherder's hands,
two socks as soft as rabbits.
I slipped my feet into them
as if they were two cases
knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin,
Violent socks,
my feet were two fish made of wool,
two long sharks
sea blue, shot through
by one golden thread,
two immense blackbirds,
two cannons,
my feet were honored in this way
by these heavenly socks.
They were so handsome for the first time
my feet seemed to me unacceptable
like two decrepit firemen,
firemen unworthy of that woven fire,
of those glowing socks.
O beautiful books
sitting around
waiting to be picked up,
Your pages
flowing
like waves
moving
from side to side.
Oh, great mighty
book, your cover
is your shield,
it protects you
from the venomous
reader.
When I flip you,
you do this little
dance.
To me, you sound
like a motor
about to run.
You're like a hand-out,
when I'm finished with you
you go to another home.
- Olivia F.
-Pablo
Neruda
An Ode to Christmas
When you see lovely lights
Of greens, reds, and whites
You know it is Christmas Time
When snow falls down from the skies
Soft and thick it lies
You know it is Christmas Time
When you hear Christmas jingles
And your skin begins to tingle
You know it is Christmas Time
An Ode for the scent of pine
An Ode to the dainty decorations that are so divine
An Ode to Christmas Time
When you get rosy cheeks
And children dash with squeals and shrieks
You know it is Christmas Time
When the young and old sit in front of the fire and
come together
To get away from the cold weather
You know it is Christmas Time
When you warm up with your sweet heart
Unable to keep apart
You know it is Christmas Time
An Ode to Hot Chocolate with marshmallows
An Ode to the Jolly fellows
An Ode to Santa Claus
An Ode to decking the halls
An Ode to Christmas Time
Bronti Phillips
Ode to Crazy Guy
Oh, Crazy Guy!
Always there by the lake
With your trusty umbrella
Rain or shine.
Singing your nonsensical songs
Spouting obscenities
At innocent
Passers-by
Who knows why you are always
there?
Who knows why you carry that
umbrella?
All I know
Is that when I run down by the lake
In the afternoon
And you are not there
To throw rocks as I pass
My life feels empty
-Robyn, grade 10
Ode to Thanks
Thanks to the word
that says thanks!
Thanks to thanks,
word
that melts
iron and snow!
The world is a threatening place
until
thanks
makes the rounds
from one pair of lips to another,
soft as a bright
feather
and sweet as a petal of sugar,
filling the mouth with its sound
or else a mumbled
whisper. …
-Pablo Neruda