“Ode on A Grecian Urn” – John Keats

About the Author:

John Keats was Born on October 31^st 1795 in London England. His poems were not received well during his life. And he seriously wrote poetry for only six years. Aha e was an English Romantic poet. The poetry of Keats is characterized by sensual imagery, most notably in the series of Odes. Today his poems and letters are some of the most popular and most analyzed in English Literature.

The theme in the poem is how time moves on yet the Urn is remaining unchanged and will forever be beautiful; unlike everything else that will change get older and eventually die.

The title refers to an ancient Grecian Urn that describes different scenes and different lives of people who are all entrapped in beauty, pureness, and agelessness. This poem effectively mirrors the image of a Grecian Urn Keats not only describes the physical appearance, but he also relates the symbolic meaning of the Urn as well as the images. The Urn represents, to the speaker, the concept of immortality and eternal life. The purpose of the poem is to explain that the only Truth that humans can understand is Beauty.

Analysis of the poem:

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 haunts 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?

In this stanza, Keats addresses a Grecian urn, which he describes as married to quietness and "adopted" by silence and time , because the urn is unable to tell stories on its own. The urn is compared to a Sylvan historian, because they both tell stories pertaining to nature. Keats says that the urn tells stories better than he does with his poems. He wonders if the urn, decorated with leaves, depicts gods or humans. He also asks where the scenes are set - in Tempe or Arcady (places in Greece). He tries to figure out the first image on the urn, where men are chasing after women. He wants to know what the reason is.

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!

Keats notes that the pipe music he imagines playing in the image on the urn sounds better than music in real life. He says that the piper cannot stop playing his song, just as the trees in the image cannot lose their leaves because they are a permanent part of the urn. Because of this, the piper cannot kiss his lover next to him, but that he should not be sad because neither she nor her beauty or their love can disappear either.

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!

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.

Keats describes the trees as happy because the images of them will never lose their leaves. He calls the piper happy because he song will not end, and neither will he love with the maiden. He says that love in real life is much different, and requires suffering - it ends with a hurting heart, as well as "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.

The next image is of a young cow (heifer lowing) being led to be sacrificed by a large group of villagers. He wonders what the town is like where they come from. Keats notes that wherever the town is, it is surely empty because every villager is attending the sacrifice of the cow on a green altar. The image is unable to change, so the townspeople are forever trapped and will not be able to return home.

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."

In the final stanza, Keats describes the urn as made in ancient Attica. It is a beautiful urn that is embroidered (brede) and depicts men and women in the marble, surrounded by trees and leaves. Although the urn does not vocalize the stories it tells, it make the viewers think intensely about the meaning, in the same way that people question eternity. He calls the urn "Cold pastoral" because it is made of cold marble and is immovable. He says that when he dies, the urn will remain the same. The urn will continue spread the message that everyone needs to know:

"Beauty is truth, and truth is beauty."

So, whole poem is an example of personification because it describes that urn as if it were pure, throughout the poem it refer to the urn as a living being well.