Antistrophe, the portion of an ode which is sung by the chorus in its returning movement from west to east, in response the strophe, which was sung from east to west.
It is of the nature of a reply, and balances the effect of the strophe. Thus, Gray's ode called "The Progress of Poesy," the strophe, which dwelt in triumphant accents on the beauty, power and ecstasy verse, is answered by the antistrophe, in a depressed and melancholy key:
- "Man's feeble race what ills await,
- Labour, and Penury, the racks of Pain,
- Disease and Sorrow's weeping Train,
- And Death, sad refuge from the storms of Fate," etc.
This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.