An ode is a rhymed lyric dignified in style often in the form of an address. Originally, it was intended to be sung. It deals with the sad theme but ends with consolation. Gray calls the poem ‘Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes’ an ode but it is not strictly an ode. In the poem the poet parodies the form of an ode.
An ode is essentially in the form of an address to a human being, dead or living, a natural object, an inanimate object, or an abstract idea. The poem ‘Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes’ is addressed to a cat belonging to the poet’s friend Horace Walpole. The cat is spoken of in human terms. She is addressed as ‘hapless nymph’ and ‘presumptuous maid’. Though she is called a nymph, she cannot save herself from being drowned. Though she is bold and daring, she takes a false step to catch the goldfishes in the vase which brings her ultimate doom.
An ode has an exalted and dignified theme. The poem is about how the cat actually drowned in a very large garden vase. It is a mock heroic poem which employs the lofty style and the conventions of epic poetry to describe a trivial or undignified theme. The poem mocks its subject by treating it in an inappropriately grandiose manner. Here the poet takes the death of a friend’s favourite cat and writes about it as if the cat was a legendary figure.
An ode deals with sad themes and ends with consolation. Undoubtedly, the poem deals with a sad theme. In the poem, the poet describes the sad lot of the cat, Selima. She was the favourite cat of Horace Walpole. When she falls into the water of the vase, she cries for help again and again, but none comes to rescue her. But the poem does not end with a consolation. Instead, it ends with a warning to beautiful women. Gray warns the fair women not to labour under illusion. He says that no beautiful creature should be led by the glittering appearances because all that glitters is not gold.
An ode has its original musical quality. It is usually rhymed. The rhyme scheme in each stanza of ‘Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes’ is aabccb, the meter is iambic, with the first and second, and fourth and fifth lines in tetrameter, the third and sixth lines in trimester.
The poem may be regarded as a Horatian ode. Horatian ode is written on private or personal experiences and the poem is also written on the personal experience of Horace Walpole whose favourite cat met her doom in the water of the vase. The Horatian ode also contains moral and Gray’s poem also contains a moral.
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