A
strophe is a poetic term originally referring to the first part of the
ode in
Ancient Greek tragedy, followed by the
antistrophe and
epode. The term has been extended to also mean a structural division of a poem containing
stanzas of varying line length. Strophic poetry is to be contrasted with poems composed line-by-line non-stanzaically, such as Greek
epic poems or English
blank verse, to which the term
stichic applies.