Ode On A Grecian Urn
Written by John Keats
Poem
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-childof 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!
Forever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
Forever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above, That leaves a heart highsorrowful and clo y'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 t own by river or sea shore, Or mountainbuilt 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 ge neration 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.
About the poet :
John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English Romantic poet. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of poets, despite his works having been in publication for only four years before his death aged 25 in the year 1821.he had become one of the most beloved of all English poets. The poetry of Keats is characterised by sensual imagery, most notably in the series of odes.
Introduction:
In Ode on a Grecian Urn, Keats addresses the titular urn, “the bride of quietness’, whose beauty and purity cannot be violated by time. Taking us to the enchanting and mysterious scenes of Greek pastoral life engraved on the urn, he exalts on how art confers permanence on beauty. Generations will pass, but the urn will remain, whispering this eternal truth, consoling and inspiring humanity.
Ode
It is a kind of poem devoted to a particular subject or a praise of a person, animal, or thing. It is written in varied or irregular metre with an elevated style and often expresses deep feeling or thought of the poet.
Summary of the first stanza:
The poet stands before an ancient Grecian urn and addresses it. He is preoccupied with its depiction of pictures frozen in time. He expresseshis sense of wonder through a string of questions. Keats calls the beautiful urn the“still unravish’ed bride of quietness”, the “foster childof silence and slow time”. He also calls it “sylvan historian”because the pictures on the urn are able to tell their stories more beautifully than any poet can.It tells the tales of gods and men inTempe or the valleys of Arcadia in Greece. He wonders about the figures on the side of the urn and asks what legend they depict and from where they come. He looks at the picture that seems to depict a group of men pursuing a group of women and wonders what their story could be: “What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
Summary of the second stanza;
The poet looks at another picture on the urn, this time of a young man playing a pipe, The poet feels that heard melodies are sweet but those unheard are sweeter. This means that imagination is more powerful than reality. The piper on the urn will go on playing on the pipe forever because art has immortalised him. His tunes are meant for the spiritual ear. Then he sees a fair youth beneath a glade of trees with his lover. Keats consoles the bold lover who is about to kiss his sweet heart saying that he should not grieve because her beauty will never fade and she will be young forever.
Summary of the third stanza :
The poet looks at the trees surrounding the lovers and feels happy that they will never shed their leaves. The trees can never bid farewell to spring because eternal spring will keep them happy forever. The piper will go on piping ever fresh melodies without feeling weariness. The lovers on the urn will keep on loving. The passions experienced by the lovers in the pictures are above real human emotions. Human passions end up in sad satiety whereas the love depicted on the urn will remain fresh and young forever.
Summary of the fourth stanza :
The poet now turns to a scene of a ritual, an animal sacrifice on a pagan altar. A heifer being led by a priest to the altar is lowing at the skies. He wonders where they are going and from where they have come. He imagines the empty streets of their little town.All the people have gone to the sacrifice. The streets of the town will be silent and desolate forever, for those who have left it, frozen on the urn, will never return.
Summary of the last stanza :
The poet again addresses the urn itself. The urn is Greek and looks beautiful. The marble urn is embroidered with human figures, branches and grass. He says that the urn diverts us away from rational speculation and it does not yield to thought. Like eternity it too cannot becomprehended in rational terms. He thinks that when his generation is long dead, the urn will remain, telling future generations its enigmatic lesson. “Beauty is truth, truth beauty.” This is the great message of the urn to mankind.
Theme
1. Time
2. Art
3. Experience
4. Love
5. Mortality and immortality
Answer the following in two or three sentences.
1.Why does the poet address the urn as the “foster child of silence and slow time”?
The urn is the “foster child of silence and slow time” because Time ,which is actually a destroyer,but here it, kept the urn safe and preseved the urn for a long time without any damage. That is why it is called time's foster child.
2.How has the urn become a “Sylvan historian”?
The urn is addressed as Sylvan historian because the scenes engraved on it are of Greek rustic life.
3. “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter”. Explain .
In these lines Keats means that imagination is more powerful than reality. Through the melodies of reality are sweet but those which remain in imagination are sweeter.
4. How are the persons and nature engraved on the urn superior to their counterparts in reality?
The persons and nature engraved on the urn are superior to their counterparts in reality for art has bestowed immortality on them. The piper will go on piping ever fresh melodies the trees will ever be green and the lovers will keep on loving and ever be young and fair. But in reality this is not possible.
5. How is the passion experienced by the lovers in the picture different from real human passion?
The passions experienced by the lovers in the pictures are far above real human emotions. Human passions, in reality, may end up either in satiety and disgust, or in intense sorrow whereas the love depicted on the urn will remain fresh and young forever.
6. Can you see the streets of the deserted town in the picture? Where do they exist?
We cannot see the streets of the deserted town in the picture. Looking at the picture of a sacrifice on the urn, the poet only imagines the empty streets of the deserted town.
7. How does the Gre cian urn affect our thoughts?
The urn confuses our thought like a riddle.
8. What does the urn symbolise?
The urn symbolises immortality and eternal beauty.
9. What contradictions are merged in the urn?
The inner contents of the urn is mortal remainings of a human being. But the pictures engraved on its outer surface symbolise the immortality and permanence of art. These are the contradictions merged in the urn.
10. What message does the urn convey to humanity?
The Urn conveys a great message to humanity is that ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty”
Answer in a paragraph of not more than 100 words
1. Comment on the three scenes engraved on the urn. How do they appeal to the poet?
The first scene that he encounters on the urn is that a group of young men chasing women and of some musical instruments. Looking at this scene he wonders about the figures on the urn and asks what legend they depict and from where they come.
The second scene is that of a young man playing a pipe, The poet feels that heard melodies are sweet but those unheard are sweeter. This means that imagination is more powerful than reality. The piper on the urn will go on playing on the pipe forever. Then he sees a fair youth beneath a a trees with his lover. Keats consoles the bold lover who is about to kiss his sweet heart saying that he should not grieve because her beauty will never fade and she will be young forever.
The third scene on the urn that of a sacrifice and an assemblage of men and women. The poet’s imagination goes beyond the actual scene represented on the urn. He imagines how the town from which the people have come to attend the sacrifice, must be forever in desolation. All these three pictures on the urn bring out the immortality and permanence of art.
2. How does Keats brings out lover and his the contrast between art and life through the picture of the bold sweetheart?
Keats looks at the picture of the bold lover and his sweetheart engraved on the urn. The lover is about to kiss his sweetheart. Even though he cannot kiss his lover, the poet says that he should not grieve because her beauty will never fade and she will be young forever. The bold lover who is about to kiss his sweetheart reminds Keats of the transience of human life and the permanence of art. The passions experienced by the lovers in the pictures are above real human emotions. Human passions, in reality, may end up either in satiety and disgust, or in intense sorrow. Keats contrasts the transience of human joy with the permanence of art.
3. Comment on the words and phrases by keats celebrates the urn as the symbol of enternity?
In "Ode on a Grecian Urn," Keats finds eternity in the beauty of art. The phrase "beauty is truth,truth beauty" they are both identical. Art immortalizes beauty and here beaty is truth. The images carved upon the urn, is of ancient life have been given immortality. This immortality, however, is not entirely a blessing. Describing a picture of two lovers, Keats strikes a balance between the positive and negative aspects of eternal existence
Written by John Keats
Poem
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-childof 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!
Forever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
Forever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above, That leaves a heart highsorrowful and clo y'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 t own by river or sea shore, Or mountainbuilt 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 ge neration 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.
About the poet :
Introduction:
In Ode on a Grecian Urn, Keats addresses the titular urn, “the bride of quietness’, whose beauty and purity cannot be violated by time. Taking us to the enchanting and mysterious scenes of Greek pastoral life engraved on the urn, he exalts on how art confers permanence on beauty. Generations will pass, but the urn will remain, whispering this eternal truth, consoling and inspiring humanity.
Ode
It is a kind of poem devoted to a particular subject or a praise of a person, animal, or thing. It is written in varied or irregular metre with an elevated style and often expresses deep feeling or thought of the poet.
Summary of the first stanza:
The poet stands before an ancient Grecian urn and addresses it. He is preoccupied with its depiction of pictures frozen in time. He expresseshis sense of wonder through a string of questions. Keats calls the beautiful urn the“still unravish’ed bride of quietness”, the “foster childof silence and slow time”. He also calls it “sylvan historian”because the pictures on the urn are able to tell their stories more beautifully than any poet can.It tells the tales of gods and men inTempe or the valleys of Arcadia in Greece. He wonders about the figures on the side of the urn and asks what legend they depict and from where they come. He looks at the picture that seems to depict a group of men pursuing a group of women and wonders what their story could be: “What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
Summary of the second stanza;
The poet looks at another picture on the urn, this time of a young man playing a pipe, The poet feels that heard melodies are sweet but those unheard are sweeter. This means that imagination is more powerful than reality. The piper on the urn will go on playing on the pipe forever because art has immortalised him. His tunes are meant for the spiritual ear. Then he sees a fair youth beneath a glade of trees with his lover. Keats consoles the bold lover who is about to kiss his sweet heart saying that he should not grieve because her beauty will never fade and she will be young forever.
Summary of the third stanza :
The poet looks at the trees surrounding the lovers and feels happy that they will never shed their leaves. The trees can never bid farewell to spring because eternal spring will keep them happy forever. The piper will go on piping ever fresh melodies without feeling weariness. The lovers on the urn will keep on loving. The passions experienced by the lovers in the pictures are above real human emotions. Human passions end up in sad satiety whereas the love depicted on the urn will remain fresh and young forever.
Summary of the fourth stanza :
The poet now turns to a scene of a ritual, an animal sacrifice on a pagan altar. A heifer being led by a priest to the altar is lowing at the skies. He wonders where they are going and from where they have come. He imagines the empty streets of their little town.All the people have gone to the sacrifice. The streets of the town will be silent and desolate forever, for those who have left it, frozen on the urn, will never return.
Summary of the last stanza :
The poet again addresses the urn itself. The urn is Greek and looks beautiful. The marble urn is embroidered with human figures, branches and grass. He says that the urn diverts us away from rational speculation and it does not yield to thought. Like eternity it too cannot becomprehended in rational terms. He thinks that when his generation is long dead, the urn will remain, telling future generations its enigmatic lesson. “Beauty is truth, truth beauty.” This is the great message of the urn to mankind.
Theme
1. Time
2. Art
3. Experience
4. Love
5. Mortality and immortality
Answer the following in two or three sentences.
1.Why does the poet address the urn as the “foster child of silence and slow time”?
The urn is the “foster child of silence and slow time” because Time ,which is actually a destroyer,but here it, kept the urn safe and preseved the urn for a long time without any damage. That is why it is called time's foster child.
2.How has the urn become a “Sylvan historian”?
The urn is addressed as Sylvan historian because the scenes engraved on it are of Greek rustic life.
3. “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter”. Explain .
In these lines Keats means that imagination is more powerful than reality. Through the melodies of reality are sweet but those which remain in imagination are sweeter.
4. How are the persons and nature engraved on the urn superior to their counterparts in reality?
The persons and nature engraved on the urn are superior to their counterparts in reality for art has bestowed immortality on them. The piper will go on piping ever fresh melodies the trees will ever be green and the lovers will keep on loving and ever be young and fair. But in reality this is not possible.
5. How is the passion experienced by the lovers in the picture different from real human passion?
The passions experienced by the lovers in the pictures are far above real human emotions. Human passions, in reality, may end up either in satiety and disgust, or in intense sorrow whereas the love depicted on the urn will remain fresh and young forever.
6. Can you see the streets of the deserted town in the picture? Where do they exist?
We cannot see the streets of the deserted town in the picture. Looking at the picture of a sacrifice on the urn, the poet only imagines the empty streets of the deserted town.
7. How does the Gre cian urn affect our thoughts?
The urn confuses our thought like a riddle.
8. What does the urn symbolise?
The urn symbolises immortality and eternal beauty.
9. What contradictions are merged in the urn?
The inner contents of the urn is mortal remainings of a human being. But the pictures engraved on its outer surface symbolise the immortality and permanence of art. These are the contradictions merged in the urn.
10. What message does the urn convey to humanity?
The Urn conveys a great message to humanity is that ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty”
Answer in a paragraph of not more than 100 words
1. Comment on the three scenes engraved on the urn. How do they appeal to the poet?
The first scene that he encounters on the urn is that a group of young men chasing women and of some musical instruments. Looking at this scene he wonders about the figures on the urn and asks what legend they depict and from where they come.
The second scene is that of a young man playing a pipe, The poet feels that heard melodies are sweet but those unheard are sweeter. This means that imagination is more powerful than reality. The piper on the urn will go on playing on the pipe forever. Then he sees a fair youth beneath a a trees with his lover. Keats consoles the bold lover who is about to kiss his sweet heart saying that he should not grieve because her beauty will never fade and she will be young forever.
The third scene on the urn that of a sacrifice and an assemblage of men and women. The poet’s imagination goes beyond the actual scene represented on the urn. He imagines how the town from which the people have come to attend the sacrifice, must be forever in desolation. All these three pictures on the urn bring out the immortality and permanence of art.
2. How does Keats brings out lover and his the contrast between art and life through the picture of the bold sweetheart?
Keats looks at the picture of the bold lover and his sweetheart engraved on the urn. The lover is about to kiss his sweetheart. Even though he cannot kiss his lover, the poet says that he should not grieve because her beauty will never fade and she will be young forever. The bold lover who is about to kiss his sweetheart reminds Keats of the transience of human life and the permanence of art. The passions experienced by the lovers in the pictures are above real human emotions. Human passions, in reality, may end up either in satiety and disgust, or in intense sorrow. Keats contrasts the transience of human joy with the permanence of art.
3. Comment on the words and phrases by keats celebrates the urn as the symbol of enternity?
In "Ode on a Grecian Urn," Keats finds eternity in the beauty of art. The phrase "beauty is truth,truth beauty" they are both identical. Art immortalizes beauty and here beaty is truth. The images carved upon the urn, is of ancient life have been given immortality. This immortality, however, is not entirely a blessing. Describing a picture of two lovers, Keats strikes a balance between the positive and negative aspects of eternal existence
In one way, they are perpetually young and love never knowing any sorrow. On the other hand, they cannot kiss, to fulfill the promise of their lives. Knowing no sorrow, the lovers' joy is ultimately meaningless, for happiness can only be experienced in contrast to suffering. Recognizing this fact, Keats shows how man's impossible quest for immortality manifests itself in art. Seeking to achieve permanence, we create images that will carry on through time. These images must ultimately fall short of the real world. Though art may surpass man chronologically, it never actually lives, and hence can only mimic the true essence of human existence.
4. "Beauty is truth, truth beauty',that is all /ye know on earth, and all ye need to know" Explain ?
Beauty is truth, truth beauty": the circular form of the aphorism recalls the pattern of Keats's reasonings but now this circularity has a restrictive value. The equation is valid only within the limits of the imaginary world of art. That is why the aphorism is qualified by a fresh restriction: "that is all / Ye know on earth." This clause would of course be meaningless if Keats had regarded the urn's message as a final lightening of "the burthen of the mystery." "All / Ye know" refers back to lines the poet tried to reach truth through beauty, and was led, in the attempt, to confess the incapacity of thought to discover the meaning of life, its inability to conceive a satisfactory connection between time and eternity. The only truth we may hope to reach on earth is that which is offered by the urn, the truth in beauty, the beauty which may yet be a substitute for truth. "All ye need to know" But though beauty and art have kept their consolatory function, they no longer provide an answer to the mystery of life. What the urn expresses is rather the position of the "negative capability" letter: let us accept, since we must, the limitations of human knowledge. One of the ironies of literary fame is that the Ode should so often have been read as a manifesto of unqualified Aestheticism: for it does not say that beauty is the refuge of those who do not think, but the comfort of those whom thought has bruised.
5. Comment on the pictorial quality of keats poetry with reference to the 'Ode on the grecian urn '?
Keats is unique for his sensuousness and pictorial quality. The Ode on a Grecian Urn contains a series of sensuous pictures—passionate men and gods chasing reluctant maidens, the flute-players playing their ecstatic music, the fair youth trying to kiss his beloved, the happy branches of the tree enjoying an everlasting spring, a priest, who is seen leading a heifer to the sacrifice on some green altar, The town is painted as situated near the river at the foot of a hill and on top there is a fortress, etc all these imagined life is more real and made a physical embraces. The whole of the poem is a remarkable one for its pictorial effects.
Keats is more poet of sensuousness than a poet of contemplation. It is his senses which revealed him the beauty of things, the beauty of universe from the stars of the sky to the flowers of the wood. Keats's pictorial senses are not vague or suggestive but made definite with the wealth of artistic details. Every stanza, Every line is full with sensuous beauty. No other poet except Shakespeare could show such a mastery of language and felicity of sensuousness .
5. Comment on the pictorial quality of keats poetry with reference to the 'Ode on the grecian urn '?
Keats is unique for his sensuousness and pictorial quality. The Ode on a Grecian Urn contains a series of sensuous pictures—passionate men and gods chasing reluctant maidens, the flute-players playing their ecstatic music, the fair youth trying to kiss his beloved, the happy branches of the tree enjoying an everlasting spring, a priest, who is seen leading a heifer to the sacrifice on some green altar, The town is painted as situated near the river at the foot of a hill and on top there is a fortress, etc all these imagined life is more real and made a physical embraces. The whole of the poem is a remarkable one for its pictorial effects.
Keats is more poet of sensuousness than a poet of contemplation. It is his senses which revealed him the beauty of things, the beauty of universe from the stars of the sky to the flowers of the wood. Keats's pictorial senses are not vague or suggestive but made definite with the wealth of artistic details. Every stanza, Every line is full with sensuous beauty. No other poet except Shakespeare could show such a mastery of language and felicity of sensuousness .
Write an essay of 300 words.
1. “Forever will thou love, and she be fair”. Discuss the central theme o with reference to this line.
Ode on a Grecian Urn is one of the most remarkable poems by the great romantic, John Keats. The central theme of the poem is beautifully described in the line “Forever will thou love, and she be fair” which conveys the transience of human life and the permanence of art. Keats addresses the urn whose beauty and purity cannot be violated by time. He is preoccupied with its depiction of pictures frozen in time. It is the “still unravish’d bride of quietness”, the “fosterchild of silence and slow time”. He also describes the urn as a “historian” that can tell a story. There is a series of pictures engraved on the urn. series of activities among which Keats focuses.
The scenes depicted are one, a festival, singers and young men chasing shy maidens; two, an amorous scene of courtship with a youth in a gesture of fulfillment; and the last, a scene of sacrifice with a priest, a heifer and people in procession to an imaginary altar. He looks at the picture which seems to depict a group of men pursuing a group of women and wonders what their story could be.
The poet then looks at another picture on the urn, of a young man playing a pipe, lying with his lover beneath a glade of trees. He says that the piper’s unheard melodies are sweeter than mortal melodies because they are unaffected by time. The lover is about to kiss his beloved.
The poet tells the young lover that, though he can never kiss his lover because he is frozen in time, he should not grieve, because her beauty will never fade. The lover depicted on the urn would always be loving, without feeling the anguish of love of real life. The piper on the urn will go on playing on the pipe forever him. His tunes are meant for the spiritual ear. The because art has immortalised poet looks at the trees on the urn and says that they will never shed their leaves. The trees can never bid farewell to spring because eternal spring will keep them happy forever. All these pictures bring out the vital difference between life and art.
Life has the vividness and warmth of reality, but it is subject to change and decay, whereas art is the unchanging expression of beauty. The other picture engraved on the urn is that of a sacrifice and an assemblage of men and women. A priest is leading the heifer to the sacrifice.
The poet imagines how the town from which the people have come to attend the sacrifice must be forever in desolation. The fact is that the people in the picture are bound to their place and thus made immovable by art.
Keats concludes the poem by conveying the urn’s message to mankind “Beauty is truth, truth beauty”. Beauty and truth are not two different things; they are identical. Art immortalizes beauty, which in its turn, consoles man.
2. Trace the evolution of thought in the poem that leads to the conclusion that the urn will beat time and remain a friend to generations of humanity?
The poem begins with the narrator's silencing the urn by describing it as the "bride of quietness", which allows him to speak for it using his own impressions. The urn is an external object capable of producing a story outside the time of its creation, and because of this ability the poet labels it a "sylvan historian" that tells its story through its beauty. The melody accompanying the pursuit is intensified in the second stanza. The unheard song never ages and the pipes are able to play forever, which leads the lovers, nature, and all involved to be immortal.
Then keat's focus is moving from the urn's ideal world and its joy and beauty to the ironic implications of the legend and the pain and truth of reality. And his next vision is not on the urn at all. Rather, it imaginatively extends the marble legend to include the unseen town from which the figures on the urn have come.
This lifeless and ultimately deceitful urn beat time and remain afriend to generations of humanity. The answer lies in what the urn says to man at the end of the poem.
Keats recognizes that the urn is an alluring thing of beauty. Its happy pastoral scene is rich and inviting so the urn is a friend to man because of its totality—not its beauty alone, but also its implicit truth that a human being cannot live by beauty alone and still develop a soul. The beauty-truth equation is not mathematically exact. It is an equation of completion. Beauty does not equal truth, but the one cannot exist on earth without the other. Where there is beauty, there is also truth; where there is warmth, there is also cold; where there is joy, there is also pain and sorrow. It is significant that the poet reverses the equation as well, and the repetition is not wasted. If beauty is truth, if joy requires pain, then so is truth beauty and so does pain require joy. The poem, therefore, does not end with equivocation or with mere longing after an unattainable ideal. The meaning of the beauty-truth equation goes much deeper.
Ultimately, the urn's message is a validation of the miseries of human life and an assertion that these miseries are necessary for attaining what Keats called "Soul." The equation may not be all that man needs to know on earth, but, properly understood, it is a great deal, and perhaps all that is necessary to make inevitable the process of Soul-making.
1. “Forever will thou love, and she be fair”. Discuss the central theme o with reference to this line.
Ode on a Grecian Urn is one of the most remarkable poems by the great romantic, John Keats. The central theme of the poem is beautifully described in the line “Forever will thou love, and she be fair” which conveys the transience of human life and the permanence of art. Keats addresses the urn whose beauty and purity cannot be violated by time. He is preoccupied with its depiction of pictures frozen in time. It is the “still unravish’d bride of quietness”, the “fosterchild of silence and slow time”. He also describes the urn as a “historian” that can tell a story. There is a series of pictures engraved on the urn. series of activities among which Keats focuses.
The scenes depicted are one, a festival, singers and young men chasing shy maidens; two, an amorous scene of courtship with a youth in a gesture of fulfillment; and the last, a scene of sacrifice with a priest, a heifer and people in procession to an imaginary altar. He looks at the picture which seems to depict a group of men pursuing a group of women and wonders what their story could be.
The poet then looks at another picture on the urn, of a young man playing a pipe, lying with his lover beneath a glade of trees. He says that the piper’s unheard melodies are sweeter than mortal melodies because they are unaffected by time. The lover is about to kiss his beloved.
The poet tells the young lover that, though he can never kiss his lover because he is frozen in time, he should not grieve, because her beauty will never fade. The lover depicted on the urn would always be loving, without feeling the anguish of love of real life. The piper on the urn will go on playing on the pipe forever him. His tunes are meant for the spiritual ear. The because art has immortalised poet looks at the trees on the urn and says that they will never shed their leaves. The trees can never bid farewell to spring because eternal spring will keep them happy forever. All these pictures bring out the vital difference between life and art.
Life has the vividness and warmth of reality, but it is subject to change and decay, whereas art is the unchanging expression of beauty. The other picture engraved on the urn is that of a sacrifice and an assemblage of men and women. A priest is leading the heifer to the sacrifice.
The poet imagines how the town from which the people have come to attend the sacrifice must be forever in desolation. The fact is that the people in the picture are bound to their place and thus made immovable by art.
Keats concludes the poem by conveying the urn’s message to mankind “Beauty is truth, truth beauty”. Beauty and truth are not two different things; they are identical. Art immortalizes beauty, which in its turn, consoles man.
2. Trace the evolution of thought in the poem that leads to the conclusion that the urn will beat time and remain a friend to generations of humanity?
The poem begins with the narrator's silencing the urn by describing it as the "bride of quietness", which allows him to speak for it using his own impressions. The urn is an external object capable of producing a story outside the time of its creation, and because of this ability the poet labels it a "sylvan historian" that tells its story through its beauty. The melody accompanying the pursuit is intensified in the second stanza. The unheard song never ages and the pipes are able to play forever, which leads the lovers, nature, and all involved to be immortal.
Then keat's focus is moving from the urn's ideal world and its joy and beauty to the ironic implications of the legend and the pain and truth of reality. And his next vision is not on the urn at all. Rather, it imaginatively extends the marble legend to include the unseen town from which the figures on the urn have come.
This lifeless and ultimately deceitful urn beat time and remain afriend to generations of humanity. The answer lies in what the urn says to man at the end of the poem.
Keats recognizes that the urn is an alluring thing of beauty. Its happy pastoral scene is rich and inviting so the urn is a friend to man because of its totality—not its beauty alone, but also its implicit truth that a human being cannot live by beauty alone and still develop a soul. The beauty-truth equation is not mathematically exact. It is an equation of completion. Beauty does not equal truth, but the one cannot exist on earth without the other. Where there is beauty, there is also truth; where there is warmth, there is also cold; where there is joy, there is also pain and sorrow. It is significant that the poet reverses the equation as well, and the repetition is not wasted. If beauty is truth, if joy requires pain, then so is truth beauty and so does pain require joy. The poem, therefore, does not end with equivocation or with mere longing after an unattainable ideal. The meaning of the beauty-truth equation goes much deeper.
Ultimately, the urn's message is a validation of the miseries of human life and an assertion that these miseries are necessary for attaining what Keats called "Soul." The equation may not be all that man needs to know on earth, but, properly understood, it is a great deal, and perhaps all that is necessary to make inevitable the process of Soul-making.
