A strophe forms the first part of the ode

Ode

Ode is a type of lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also exist...

 in Ancient Greek tragedy, followed by the antistrophe

Antistrophe

Antistrophe is the portion of an ode sung by the chorus in its returning movement from west to east, in response to the strophe, which was sung from east to west.It has the nature of a reply and balances the effect of the strophe...

 and epode

Epode

Epode, in verse, is the third part of an ode, which followed the strophe and the antistrophe, and completed the movement.At a certain point in time the choirs, which had previously chanted to right of the altar or stage, and then to left of it, combined and sang in unison, or permitted the...

. In its original Greek setting, "strophe, antistrophe and epode were a kind of stanza framed only for the music," as John Milton

John Milton

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...

 wrote in the preface to Samson Agonistes

Samson Agonistes

Samson Agonistes is a tragic closet drama by John Milton. It appeared with the publication of Milton's Paradise Regain'd in 1671, as the title page of that volume states: "Paradise Regained / A Poem / In IV Books / To Which Is Added / Samson Agonistes"...

, with the strophe chanted by a Greek chorus

Greek chorus

A Greek chorus is a homogenous, non-individualised group of performers in the plays of classical Greece, who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action....

 as it moved from right to left across the scene.

Etymology

Strophe (icon ; Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 στροφή, turn, bend, twist, see also phrase

Phrase

In everyday speech, a phrase may refer to any group of words. In linguistics, a phrase is a group of words which form a constituent and so function as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence. A phrase is lower on the grammatical hierarchy than a clause....

) is a concept in versification

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

 which properly means a turn, as from one foot

Foot (prosody)

The foot is the basic metrical unit that generates a line of verse in most Western traditions of poetry, including English accentual-syllabic verse and the quantitative meter of classical ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The unit is composed of syllables, the number of which is limited, with a few...

 to another, or from one side of a chorus to the other.

Poetic Structure

In a more general sense, the strophe is a pair of stanzas of alternating form on which the structure of a given poem is based, with the strophe usually being identical with the stanza

Stanza

In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...

 in modern poetry and its arrangement and recurrence of rhymes giving it its character. But the Greeks called a combination of verse-periods a system, giving the name "strophe" to such a system only when it was repeated once or more in unmodified form.

Origins & Development

It is said that Archilochus first created the strophe by binding together systems of two or three lines. But it was the Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 ode-writers who introduced the practice of strophe-writing on a large scale, and the art was attributed to Stesichorus

Stesichorus

Stesichorus was the first great poet of the Greek West. He is best known for telling epic stories in lyric metres but he is also famous for some ancient traditions about his life, such as his opposition to the tyrant Phalaris, and the blindness he is said to have incurred and cured by composing...

, although it is probable that earlier poets were acquainted with it. The arrangement of an ode

Ode

Ode is a type of lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also exist...

 in a splendid and consistent artifice of strophe, antistrophe

Antistrophe

Antistrophe is the portion of an ode sung by the chorus in its returning movement from west to east, in response to the strophe, which was sung from east to west.It has the nature of a reply and balances the effect of the strophe...

 and epode

Epode

Epode, in verse, is the third part of an ode, which followed the strophe and the antistrophe, and completed the movement.At a certain point in time the choirs, which had previously chanted to right of the altar or stage, and then to left of it, combined and sang in unison, or permitted the...

 was carried to its height by Pindar

Pindar

Pindar , was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian described him as "by far the greatest of the nine lyric poets, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich...

.

Variant Forms

With the development of Greek prosody

Meter (poetry)

In poetry, metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Many traditional verse forms prescribe a specific verse metre, or a certain set of metres alternating in a particular order. The study of metres and forms of versification is known as prosody...

, various peculiar strophe-forms came into general acceptance, and were made celebrated by the frequency with which leading poets employed them. Among these were the Sapphic, the Elegiac, the Alcaic, and the Asclepiadean strophe, all of them prominent in Greek and Latin verse. The briefest and the most ancient strophe is the dactylic distych, which consists of two verses of the same class of rhythm, the second producing a melodic counterpart to the first.

Reproductions

The forms in modern English verse which reproduce most exactly the impression aimed at by the ancient odestrophe are the elaborate rhymed stanzas of such poems as Keats

John Keats

John Keats was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death.Although his poems were not...

' Ode to a Nightingale or Matthew Arnold

Matthew Arnold

Matthew Arnold was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator...

's The Scholar-Gipsy.

A strophic form of poetry called Muwashshah

Muwashshah

Muwashshah or muwaššaḥ can mean:...

 developed in Andalucia as early as the 9th century C.E, which then spread to North Africa and the Middle East. Muwashshah was typically in classical Arabic, with the refrain sometimes in the local dialect.

Types

Two verses

Pareado: aa / AA.

Alegría (Hapiness):

Cosante:

Dístico elegiaco:

Three Verses

Terceto: 11A 11B 11A

Tercetillo:

Soleá: a-a

Four Verses

Cuarteto: 11A 11B 11B 11A

Redondilla: 8a 8b 8b 8a

Serventesio: 11A 11B 11A 11B

Cuarteta: 8a 8b 8a 8b

Copla: - a - a

Seguidilla: 7a 5b 7a 5b ó 7- 5a 7- 5a

Cuaderna vía: 14A 14A 14A 14A

Five Verses

Quintilla:

Double Quintilla

Quintilla endecasílaba

Quintilla of Fray Luis de León

Royal Quintilla

Quinteto:

Quinteto de arte mayor

Quinteto contracto

Quinteto agudo

Lira: 7a 11B 7a 7b 11B

Six Verses

Sexteto o sextina: Versos

Sextilla:

Copla de pie quebrado or copla manriqueña: 8a 8b 4c 8a 8b 4c

Seven Verses

Compound Seguidilla: 7- 5a 7- 5a 5b 7- 5b

Eight Verses

Royal Octava: ABABABCC

Copla de arte mayor: ABBAACCA

Octavilla: 4- 4a 4a 4b 4- 4c 4c 4b

Ten Verses

Décima o espinela: abbaaccddc

Seguidilla chamberga: 7- 5a 7- 5a 3b 7b 3c 7c 3d 7d