The ode is usually lengthy and deals with serious subject matter in a formal style. An example is Milton's Ode "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity", composed in 1629, consisting of twenty-seven stanzas. The first I quote here:
This is the Month, and this the happy morn
Wherein the Son of Heav'ns eternal King,
Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did sing,
That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.