ODD'FEL'LOWS, persons affiliated to certain associations that originated, about the year 1820; but now oddfellow socie ties form parts of an important system, widely ramified in Great Britain and the United States. The °Mellows are in many respects similar to freemasons, as to initiatory rites, secret oaths, &e. ; and hold frequent meetings, ostensibly for philanthropic purposes.
ODE, among the Greeks and Romans, was a short lyric composition, usually in tended to he sung, and accompanied by some musical instrument, generally the lyre ; hence the expression lyric verse. In the modern sense of the word, the ode appears to he distinguished from the song by greater length and variety, and by not being necessarily adapted to music. It is distinguished also from the ballad, and other species of lyric poetry, by its being confined to the expression of senti ment, or of imaginative thought, on a given subject, not admitting of narrative, except incidentally. The odes of Tindal., Anacreon, and Horace, are, in fact, the models on which the modern notion of the ode is formed, and which have been imi tated in similar compositions in modern times. Until the science of Greek metres
was so accurately explored as it has recently been, the Pindaric ode was sup posed to admit of an excessive irregularity in the length and measure of lines. In point of fact, however, a scheme of per fect. metrical irregularity pervaded the Greek ode . the Anacreontic ode consists of is number of lines of the same metrical length and arrangement. The Horatian ode, again, consists of an indefinite num ber of stanzas, precisely similar to each other, each forming a complete metrical whole. The Dithyrambic ode was a bacchanalian song; and as, from the attributes of the divinity to which it was dedicated, it admitted great irregularity and license, the name has been transfer red in modern times to all odes partaking of a will and impetuous character.