What is an Ode?
An ode is a poem of celebration that often directly addresses (“you…”) the subject matter it praises. By learning about odes and writing their own, students will practise the poetic technique of personification.
Poem
Read the poem 'Ode to a Wooden Spoon' aloud in class. You may ask for a volunteer to read each stanza (a stanza is the poetic name for a block of text, like the poetic version of a paragraph).
Reflection
Read the author’s reflection, available here ...
Families gather around food, and this wooden spoon has led me to new and old ones - Arielle Cottingham reflects
Listen
With this understanding, listen to the author Arielle Cottingham read the poem “Ode to a Wooden Spoon” on the Red Room Poetry website.
"Families gather around food, and the wooden spoon my mother gifted me has led me to new and old ones and helped me feed them all"
Writing Exercise
- Choose an everyday object that you are familiar with; this could be a utensil you’d find in your kitchen (a favourite fork, bowl, or spoon) or something you’d find in another room (a pillow, a toothbrush; the options are endless!).
- Write an ode to that object. Like the poet Arielle Cottingham, do this by addressing the object as “you”. For example, “food flavoured at your touch” and “I know how much you have given by the scorchmarks perched elegantly on your handle”.
- Challenge: Arielle mentions the wooden spoon in the poem’s title, but not in the poem itself. See if you can write this ode without ever mentioning the object.
Featured Poets
For more poems about objects, visit Red Room Poetry’s Poetry Object page:
