Ode on a Grecian Urn 

BY 

JOHN KEATS
 Ode on a Grecian Urn 
BY JOHN KEATS

 Urn is a tall, rounded vase with a stem and base, especially one used for storing the ashes of a cremated person.
 The poem is one of the "Great Odes of 1819", which also include "Ode on Indolence", "Ode on Melancholy", "
Ode to a Nightingale", and "Ode to Psyche". Keats found existing forms in poetry unsatisfactory for his
purpose, and in this collection he presented a new development of the ode form. He was inspired to write the
poem after reading two articles by English artist and writer Benjamin Haydon. Through his awareness of other
writings in this field and his first-hand acquaintance with the Elgin Marbles, Keats perceived the idealism and
representation of Greek virtues in classical Greek art, and his poem draws upon these insights.
 "Ode on a Grecian Urn" was not well received by contemporary critics. It was only by the mid-19th century that
it began to be praised, although it is now considered to be one of the greatest odes in English language. A long
debate over the poem's final statement divided 20th-century critics, but most agreed on the beauty of the work,
despite certain perceived inadequacies. To Keats, the Grecian urn in "Ode on a Grecian Urn" symbolizes a kind of
immortality because of its endurance over time. 
Ode on a Grecian Urn 
BY JOHN KEATS
 Ode on a Grecian Urn 
BY JOHN KEATS
Ode on a Grecian Urn  object, and begin with three metaphorical descriptions of the urn.
BY JOHN KEATS
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?
The first four lines show the speaker at a point of relative calm, before the
contemplation of the object has provoked any major intellectual dilemma.
They represent the starting point of the engagement between speaker and
Lines 5-10 consist entirely of questions, establishing the poem as a kind of
interrogation. One of Keats's key principles as a poet, that of negative
capability, holds that a good artist needs to be able to operate from a position
of doubt, of not knowing.
The question that runs from line 5 to line 7 shows that the speaker does not
know whether the pictures are meant to represent a mythical scene or
something that actually happened. Tempe is a famously beautiful part of
northern Greece that was considered a favorite location of Apollo and the
Muses; Arcady is in the Peloponnese and was home to the Greek god Pan,
who was often associated with the countryside .
 Ode on a Grecian Urn 
BY JOHN KEATS

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!
For the speaker, this unheard music, frozen in time by the urn's
inanimateness, represents an ideal music of pure beauty—it is
untarnished by actually having to exist. Of course, this is not a statement
that holds true, given that music is specifically the organized patterning
of airborne vibrations. This can be read as representing a point in the
poem at which the speaker is most intoxicated by the urn—its quiet
quality comes to represent an ideal beauty which all art aspires to, but
perhaps can never reach. For a moment, this seems tangible to the
speaker. These lines therefore embody the mystery of art, truth, and
beauty. For the speaker, these three are completely inseparable—but not
easy to understand.
So, as with the representation of music that came before, the two lovers
also embody an ideal—which can be interpreted as beauty, love, lust,
and youthfulness. Line 17 masterfully renders the above contradiction.
The spondaic first foot emphasizes the lover's boldness by combining
two strong stresses at the start of the line
 Ode on a Grecian Urn 
BY JOHN KEATS

 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.

 Ode on a Grecian Urn 
BY JOHN KEATS

 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.

 Ode on a Grecian Urn 
BY JOHN KEATS

 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."

Ode on a Grecian Urn 
BY JOHN KEATS
Ode on a Grecian Urn 
BY JOHN KEATS
Ode on a Grecian Urn 
BY JOHN KEATS