Emily Dickinson Lexicon

EP'ODE, n. [Gr. επωδη; επι and ωδη, ode.]

In lyric poetry, the third or last part of the ode; that which follows the strophe and antistrophe; the ancient ode being divided into strophe, antistrophe and epode. The word is now used as the name of any little verse or verses, that follow one or more great ones. Thus a pentameter after a hexameter is an epode. – Encyc.