John Keats

Ode on a Grecian Urn

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Ode on a Grecian Urn

ODE● A complex, generally long lyric poem on a serious subject● Common form used by the Romantics

John KeatsJohn Keats was born on October 31, 1795.At the age of 8 his father died from a fractured skull after falling off a horse and his mother died from tuberculosis six years later.After their deaths Keats moved to Hampstead where he met Charles Brown who became a good friend and wrote Keats’ memoirs. In them Brown said that it was not until Keats read Edmund Spencer’s Faery Queen that he realized his own gift for poetry.

Ode on a Grecian UrnIt was written in 1819 and published in 1820.It is one of Keats’ “Five Great Odes.”The ode follows a structural pattern with each stanza containing ten lines and ten syllables.The first four lines of each stanza are written in a Shakespearian based quatrain and the last six lines are a Miltonic based sestet.

Ode to a Grecian Urn

Ode to a Grecian Urn

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,     Thou foster-child of silence and slow time, Sylvan historian, who canst thus express     A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme: What leaf-fring'd legend haunt about thy shape     Of deities or mortals, or of both,         In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?     What men or gods are these?  What maidens loth? What mad pursuit?  What struggle to escape?         What pipes and timbrels?  What wild ecstasy?Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard     Are sweeter: therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,     Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave     Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;         Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss, Though winning near the goal - yet, do not grieve;         She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,     For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed     Your leaves, nor ever bid the spring adieu; And, happy melodist, unwearied,     For ever piping songs for ever new; More happy love! more happy, happy love!   

Ode to a Grecian Urn  For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd, 

        For ever panting, and for ever young; All breathing human passion far above,     That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,         A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.Who are these coming to the sacrifice?     To what green altar, O mysterious priest, Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,     And all her silken flanks with garlands drest? What little town by river or sea shore,     Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,         Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn? And, little town, thy streets for evermore     Will silent be; and not a soul to tell         Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.O Attic shape!  Fair attitude! with brede     Of marble men and maidens overwrought, With forest branches and the trodden weed;     Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!     When old age shall this generation waste,         Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe     Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all         Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know

Literary AnalysisIn the first stanza the speaker addresses the urn in front of him by describing it as a historian. He admires the figure depicted on it and wonders what legend they depict and from where do they come from.In the second and third stanzas the speaker looks at a picture on the urn, which depicts a man playing a pipe while lying next to his lover under a group of trees. He believes that the man’s “unheard melodies” sound better then anything mortal because they are not affected by time. He also talks about how even though the man can’t kiss the woman the love between the two will last forever unlike mortal love.In the fourth stanza the speaker looks at another picture, which depicts a group of villagers taking a heifer to be sacrificed. The speaker asks himself where they are taking the heifer to be sacrificed and he imagines that their town will always remain silent and that they will never return.In the final stanza the speaker addresses the urn once again saying how long after his generation it will still remain a mystery to others.

The opening invocation is followed by a string of questions which flash their own answer upon us out of the darkness of antiquity - interrogatories which are at the same time pictures.

Stanza 1

Stanza 2 & 3

Express with perfect poetic felicity and insight the vital differences between life, which pays for its unique prerogative of reality by satiety and decay, and art, which in forfeiting reality gains in exchange permanence of beauty, and the power to charm by imagined experiences even richer than the real.

Stanza 4

By questioning: who are these coming to the sacrifice? The poet led the readers again to a position of observer.Here,the poet focused on a social activity of the villagers, reflecting the relation between art and reality

Stanza 5

came back to the urn as a whole, reflecting the well-organized structure of the ode. Finally, the poet point out the relation between art and reality: Beauty is truth, truth beauty. What should be emphasized here is that: the poet felt the beauty by heart, and imagination plays an important role in this process.

Analysis & Theme

Generally speaking: The sight, or the imagination, of a piece of ancient sculpture had set the poet's mind at work. Conjuring up the scenes of ancient life and worship which lay behind and suggested the sculptured images on one hand; on the other, speculating on the abstract relations of plastic art to life.

Theme :The beauty of art is long-lasting. It has gone beyond time and space ,and will never disappear.

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