Ode on a Grecian Urn - John Keats

Ode on a Grecian Urn

   

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          Ode on a Grecian Urn represents poet’s love towards Greek Mythology. He has written this poem by taking inspiration from a Greek sculpture. He saw paintings on the sculpture and his imagination flourished. He imagined all the paintings as live human beings.  Keats has presented the life in a motionless ‘Urn’ and wrote a beautiful poem of feelings.

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 the very first stanza Keats has described the beauty of the Urn. From so many years, urn is there and still it is telling the story of its time. Keats calls it  “Bride of Quietness” which suggests the silent beauty of the urn. Urn is as beautiful as bride and it is silently telling the story of its time. Here he used personification. Further he said that the urn is “foster child of silence and slow time”, the word foster suggests adopted child. Urn is not created by time and silence but both have preserved the urn as carefully as they can and still urn is as beautiful as it was before. He looks towards the urn and its paintings and asks himself that whose paintings are these? And are they men or Gods? He feels wild ecstasy from the paintings. He saw the maidens and lovers and how they love each other. Keats has portrayed eternal love and pure emotions in the urn.

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!

       The first two lines of the second stanza is very famous. In this line poet says that the melodies which exists and which humans have heard time and again are sweet, but those unheard melodies which poet has felt in the urn are sweeter because it has made from the imagination rather than composition. Heard melodies can be heard by ears but unheard can be feel by heart.

   

     Keats was suffering in his love life, and when he saw the lovers on the urn, he said that they cannot touch each other but can stay with each other always. They will be on urn and never die, and this how their love will be always pure and eternal. He compares their love with earthly love and concept of society and restrictions. As per Keats lovers on earth can touch each other but cannot stay together. The lover on urn will always love his beloved and she will be always young.

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 says that the tree will always be blossomed and there will be never autumn. The songs of lovers will be always new because all songs are imaginative and imagination cannot be the same all time. Keats has represented passion in last two lines of the stanza. It can be said that he has represented his love and passion through “burning forehead and parching tongue”, because love needs sacrifice.

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.

     

          In this stanza poet captures the image of animal sacrifice which were practiced ancient times and Keats asks the priest about this. In this stanza poet imagines the scene of cow sacrifice in which people have came to attend the event from far villages and all are crowded around the cow. All are looking towards ritual which is placed between the mountains. Poet has encountered the sacrifice as the viewer but he does not know why the ritual was happening and what was the purpose because there was “not a soul to tell” us.

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."

      The last stanza poet again appreciates the beauty of the urn. He appreciates the shape and appearance of the urn. He also noticed the fanciness of the urn. Keats says that when this generation will get old and also lost the urn will be there and tell its story to the next generation. And at last he said the most famous line of the poem about beauty. Here beauty can be suggested as an art and it can be said that art reflects truth and both are also connected deeply. We all need to know this. Each piece of art reflect the truth of its time.