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A collection of any number of troparia, preceded by their Hirmos, sometimes merely quoted by its initial words, sometimes given at length, and with inverted commas, is an Ode.
38Let the Hirmos, be as before—
| “With my lips have I,” &c. |
and the Ode might follow thus:—
Hirmos.
| “With my lips have I been telling: of all the judgments of Thy mouth. “Let us break their bonds asunder: and cast away their cords from us. “I am weary of my groaning: and every night I wash my bed. “For he lieth waiting secret: ly as a lion in his den. “I am poured out like water: and all my bones are out of joint.” |
Glory.
| “I will talk of thy commandments: and have respect unto thy ways.” |
Both now.
And let this be most carefully observed: an Ode is simply a Sequence under somewhat different laws. Just when the Greek system of 39 ecclesiastical poetry was fully developed, S. Notker and the Monks of S. Gall hit out a similar one for the Latin Church: the Sequence or the Prose. It was not copied from the East, for we have S. Notker’s own account of the way in which he invented it. It prospered to a certain extent; that is, it became one, though the least important, branch of Ecclesiastical verses.
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