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{{Short description|First part of the ode; structural division of a poem}}
{{one source|date=April 2009}}

A '''strophe''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|t|r|oʊ|f|iː}}) is a poetic term originally referring to the first part of the [[ode]] in [[Ancient Greek tragedy]], followed by the [[antistrophe]] and [[epode]]. The term has been extended to also mean a structural division of a poem containing [[stanza]]s of varying line length. Strophic poetry is to be contrasted with poems composed line-by-line non-stanzaically, such as Greek [[Epic poetry|epic poems]] or English [[blank verse]], to which the term ''[[stichic]]'' applies.

In its original Greek setting, "strophe, antistrophe and epode were a kind of [[stanza]] framed only for the music", as [[John Milton]] wrote in the preface to ''[[Samson Agonistes]]'', with the strophe chanted by a [[Greek chorus]] as it moved from right to left across the scene.

==Etymology==
Strophe (from [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] [[wikt:στροφή|στροφή]], "turn, bend, twist") is a concept in [[poetry|versification]] which properly means a turn, as from one [[Foot (prosody)|foot]] 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 [[stanza]]s of alternating form on which the structure of a given poem is based, with the strophe usually being identical to the stanza 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 unmoved form.

A simple form of Greek strophe is the Sapphic strophe. Like all Greek verse, it is composed of alternating long and short syllables (symbolized by '''—''' for long, '''u''' for short and '''x''' for either long or short) in this case arranged in the following manner:<ref>William S. Annis. Introduction to Greek Meter. Aoidoi.org January 2006. [http://www.aoidoi.org/articles/meter/intro.pdf. Page 11.]</ref>

'''— u — x — u u — u — —'''

'''— u — x — u u — u — —'''

'''— u — x — u u — u — x — u u — —'''

Far more complex forms are found in the odes of [[Pindar]] and the choral sections of [[Greek drama]].

In choral poetry, it is common to find the strophe followed by a metrically identical [[antistrophe]], which may – in Pindar and other [[epinician]] poets – be followed in turn by a metrically dissimilar [[epode]],<ref>Edwin D. Floyd. "Some more or less technical observations on Greek rhythm." class material for University of Pittsburgh: Classics 1130. https://www.pitt.edu/~edfloyd/Class1130/strophe.html accessed January 6, 2015.</ref> creating an ''AAB'' form.

==Origins and development==
It is said{{By whom|date=May 2024}} that [[Archilochus of Paros|Archilochus]] first created the strophe by binding together systems of two or three lines. But it was the [[Greece|Greek]] ode-writers who introduced the practice of strophe-writing on a large scale, and the art was attributed to [[Stesichorus]], although it is likely that earlier poets were acquainted with it. The arrangement of an [[ode]] in a splendid and consistent artifice of strophe, [[antistrophe]] and [[epode]] was carried to its height by [[Pindar]].

==Variant forms==
With the development of Greek [[Meter (poetry)|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 distich,'' 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 ode strophe are the elaborate rhymed stanzas of such poems as [[John Keats|Keats]]' ''[[wikisource:Ode to a Nightingale|Ode to a Nightingale]]'' or [[Matthew Arnold]]'s ''[[wikisource:The Scholar-Gipsy|The Scholar-Gipsy]]''.

A strophic form of poetry called [[Muwashshah]] developed in [[Andalucia]] as early as the 9th century CE, which then spread to North Africa and the Middle East. Muwashshah was typically in classical Arabic, with the refrain sometimes in the local dialect.

==Contemporary usage==
The term strophe is used in modern and post-modern criticism to indicate "long non-isomorphic units" of verse whereas the term "stanza [is used] for more regular ones".<ref name="PrincetonPoetics2012">{{cite book |editor1-last=Cushman |editor1-first=Stephen |editor2-last=Cavanagh |editor2-first=Clare |editor3-last=Ramazani |editor3-first=Jahan |editor4-last=Rouzer |editor4-first=Paul |title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics |date=2012 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |page=1360 |edition=4th |chapter=Strophe}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Strophic form]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Strophe|volume=25|page=1042}}

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[[Category:Ancient Greek theatre]]
[[Category:Poetic forms]]