PeterK

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=Ode on a Grecian 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-fringed 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? || ||
 * 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, unwearièd, || ||
 * 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. || ||
 * 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 its 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.' || ||
 * 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.' || ||

Title: The title, before reading the poem, suggests a reverence for a certain urn. Denotatively, the poem is an ode to a Grecian urn. There is little connotative meaning to the title, although the reader may assume that the Grecian urn plays a greater role than a mere object.

Paraphrase: The poem begins with the narrator observing a Grecian urn which he finds to be a storyteller. The urn is fraught with depictions of men and deities. The narrator questions the urn about the nature of the engravings and the meaning behind the depictions. Also on the urn is a picture of a young boy playing the pipes, which the narrator finds the music “sweeter” than “heard music”. The narrator continues to address the urn, describing the eternal nature of the urn and the immovability of the pictures, such as the tree not being able to shed its leaves or the young man not being able to kiss the girl. The narrator then sees a ceremony involving the sacrifice of a heifer. All of the narrator’s inquiries are for naught although in the end, the only knowledge he gains from the urn is that beauty is truth and truth is beauty.

Connotation: Dictions such as “never” refer to the set in stone nature of the urn. The images of the numerous figures are to emphasize the urn’s status as an omniscient historian. The poem is also full of symbolisms that represent the course of history.

Attitude: The speaker is intrigued by the urn and shows a great amount of respect for it. The author takes on a similar stance, creating the speaker to be a curious yet somewhat naïve individual whilst making the urn sagacious.

Shifts: Each stanza contains a shift from the narrator’s statement of the urn’s permanence to the beauty of the pictures. There is a major shift in the last two lines of the poem; throughout most of the poem, the speaker asks the urn but being an urn, it does not reply. The speaker’s implication that beauty is truth and truth is beauty is the urn’s sole answer for the speaker.

Theme: The poem focuses on the perpetual history and the beauty of the truth which history also represents.

Title: The title of the poem describes the speaker’s respect for an object that can possibly exist forever. The urn symbolizes everything eternal; it is an artifact uncovered that remained for millennia, and on that artifact are pictures equally everlasting: history.