6. John Keats Ode On A Grecian Urn Listo

John Keats

Biography  John Keats (1795-1821), English lyric poet, usually regarded as the archetype of the Romantic writer. Keats felt that the deepest meaning of life lay in the apprehension of material beauty, although his mature poems reveal his fascination with a world of death and decay. Keats was born in London on October 31, 1795 as the son of a livery-stable manager. He was the oldest of four children, who remained deeply devoted to each other. After their father died in 1804, Keats's mother remarried but the marriage was soon broken. She moved with the children, John and his sister Fanny and brothers George and Tom, to live with her mother at Edmonton, near London. She died of tuberculosis in 1810.

 At school Keats read widely. He was educated at Clarke's School in Enfield, where he began a translation of the Aeneid. In1811 he was apprenticed to a surgeon-apothecary. His first poem, "Lines in Imitation of Spenser", was written in 1814. In that year he moved to London and resumed his surgical studies in 1815 as a student at Guy's hospital. Next year he became a Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries. Before devoting himself entirely to poetry, Keats worked as a dresser and junior house surgeon. In London he had met the editor of The Examiner, Leigh Hunt, who introduced him to other young Romantics, including Shelley. His poem, "O Solitude", also appeared in The Examiner.

 Keats's first book, Poems, was published in 1817. It was about this time Keats started to use his letters as the vehicle of his thoughts of poetry. "Endymion", Keats's first long poem appeared, when he was 21. Keats's greatest works were written in the late 1810s, among them "Lamia", "The Eve of St. Agnes", the great odes including "Ode to a Nightingale", Ode To Autumn" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn". He worked briefly as a theatrical critic for The Champion.

 Keats spent three months in 1818 attending his brother Tom, who was seriously ill with tuberculosis. After Tom's death in December, Keats moved to Hampstead. In the winter of 1818-19 he worked mainly on "Hyperion". In 1820 the second volume of Keats poems appeared and gained critical success. However, Keats was suffering from tuberculosis and his poems were marked with sadness partly because he was too poor to marry Fanny Brawne, the woman he loved. Declining Shelley's invitation to join him at Pisa, Keats went to Rome, where he died at the age of 25, on February 23, 1821. Keats told his friend Joseph Severn that he wanted on his grave just the line, "Here lies one whose name was written in water."

Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats

Ode on a Grecian Urn Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness, Thou foster-child of silence and slow time, Sylvan historian, who canst thou 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?

Ode on a Grecian 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! Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed

Ode on a Grecian Urn 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 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 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 analysis  Written in 1819, 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' was the third of the five 'great odes' of 1819, which are generally believed to have been written in the following order - Psyche, Nightingale, Grecian Urn, Melancholy, and Autumn. Of the five, Grecian Urn and Melancholy are merely dated '1819'. Critics have used vague references in Keats's letters as well as thematic progression to assign order. ('Ode on Indolence', though written in March 1819, perhaps before Grecian Urn, is not considered one of the 'great odes'.)

Ode on a Grecian Urn analysis

This ode contains the most discussed two lines in all of Keats's poetry - '"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," that is all/Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.' The exact meaning of those lines is disputed by everyone; no less a critic than TS Eliot considered them a blight upon an otherwise beautiful poem. Scholars have been unable to agree to whom the last thirteen lines of the poem are addressed. Arguments can be made for any of the four most obvious possibilities, -poet to reader, urn to reader, poet to urn, poet to figures on the urn. The issue is further confused by the change in quotation marks between the original manuscript copy of the ode and the 1820 published edition.

Ode on a Grecian Urn analysis In order to like this poem we need to transport ourselves in time and have disbelieve. The Urn becomes a bride who hasn’t been touched. The Urn has been adopted by silence and slow time. The Urn is a historian that describes history. The Urn has a legend on it. In one way the Urn is a better historian. It's a flowery tales (a tale with flower)

Ode on a Grecian Urn analysis

The story that the Urn tells is the history of Gods and humans, and it is on the shape of the Urn. Beauty is captured (pursuit) on the Urn. Pipes and tymbrels: the musicians struggle to escape. No matters who comes, one can listen to the melody that one wants to hear. The sound that we hear is a present sound, but the one that the musician are playing, is for the spirit, without sound. A dittie is like a song, but it has no sound.

Ode on a Grecian Urn analysis  Consolation: the man has the tree forever. In the world of the Urn, the trees are there for ever, and they never die. Even if he is very close to his love, he cannot fulfill his goal, but he doesn’t grief because she cannot fade (she is also there forever). Forever with your love. How tragic to be so near to fulfillment and yet not been able to get it.  Eternal: melodies, beauty, youth and love. the melodies are forever new, the musician never get tire of playing. There is no limitation through time nor culture. The melodies will always be updated. The fun and beauty is there to be enjoyed for every youngster.

Ode on a Grecian Urn analysis Passion and the love of two young lovers. A picture of two young lovers coming to sacrifice, like a young cow to the altar. They never go back because they are captured in the Urn. What little town… Looking at the people makes him think of the town, the town is empty because they are all at the sacrifice. The silence of the Urn takes us out to eternity. For the way the author writes we see that he is a dreamer.

Ode on a Grecian Urn analysis Cold Pastoral: a cold pastoral describe life in the country side. It’s not people of flesh and bones. It is an Urn and does not transmits any living feelings. We only see it in the Urn. A sign of eternity is that the Urn has passed through generations and when our generation will not be here, the Urn will. The Urn will be in other peoples woe (suffering). The Urn is a permanent friend who diminish pain and suffering for the next generations. Why? Because, when you are transported to another time, pain goes away, at least temporarily. It gets you out of your reality, that is why the Urn is called a friend. The Urn helps kill the pain and suffering of people throughout generation to pass.

Ode on a Grecian Urn analysis  The Ode was inspired by the poet’s contemplating the Elgin Marbles. Acquired by the British Museum in 1816, the Marbles are a group of relief sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens that depict various scenes from Greek mythology, just which Urn if indeed it ever existed- Keats used as his model is not known.

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