This stanza deals initially with the urn itself - the Attic shape classic vase shape from Attica, in ancient Greece and the woven pattern brede - but ends up with the situation flipped on its head as the urn is given a voice with which to address the speaker and all humanity. In line 44, following a description of the urn itself, the speaker finally reveals something about the effect the pictures and scenes have had on his mind. The conclusion is that the urn 'dost tease us out of thought', that is, the urn is just like the notion of eternity The speaker states 'Cold Pastoral!
The urn is nothing but cold country earth shaped so to attract but however it will prevail. When generations have passed, the urn will persist and in this sense it is to be welcomed as a friend. A big debate rages among scholars In the published copy only the words " Beauty is truth, truth beauty ," are given over to the urn.
Well, there is no definitive answer but it seems likely that both lines are the voice of urn. Whatever the truth, the fact is that the five short words have become synonymous with the name of John Keats and this ode. Within the confines of the ode beauty may well be truth and vice versa but in real life humans often seek a truth beyond art and the imagination, reaching for the realms of religious experience and transcendence.
Keats' ode is a reminder of the age of romanticism and the idea that art could be the salvation of humankind, an expression of deep spirituality. The ode explores Keats' notion of art being forever beautiful, beyond the grasp of time and inevitable decay, unlike we humans, creatures of flesh and blood, struggling with day to day reality.
When two words close together in a line start with the similar sounding consonants, they are alliterative, which adds texture and phonetic interest to the poem. For example:. Lead'st thou that heifer lowing Of marble men and maidens. When two words close together in a line have similar sounding vowels. Again, the sounds combine to produce echo and resonance:. A caesura is a pause in a line caused usually by punctuation in a short or medium length line.
The reader has to pause for a fraction. In this poem, the second stanza has fifteen, which means the rhythm is broken up, fragmented, so the reader is slowed down and the lines become quite naturally more complex. Is a device where two or more clauses are up-ended or flipped to produce an artistic effect with regards meaning, as in line When a line is not punctuated and runs on into the next it is said to be enjambed.
It allows the poem to flow in certain parts and challenges the reader to move swiftly on from one line to the next with the meaning intact. There are several lines with enjambment in Keats' ode, each stanza having at least one line. In stanza four for example lines 38 and 39 flow on into the last:. Ode On A Grecian Urn has a basic iambic pentameter template but many lines are altered metrically which helps vary the rhythm and also places special emphasis on certain words.
The poet sees a Grecian urn which has not been affected by the onslaught of time and has been lying silently on the lap of time. The urn gives the record of a past age more graphically than poetry. Its borders are encircled with garlands of leaves. The poet asks whether the figures depicted on the urn are of gods or men or both, whether they are from Tempe or Arcadia, who the maidens trying to escape the pursuit of mad lovers and the musicians playing on pipes and timbrels are.
The youth represented on the urn as playing on the pipe will always go on playing under the tree which will never shed their leaves. And the lover who is hotly pursuing the girl will never succeed in catching and kissing her. But he need not be sad, because he will never cease to love her and his beloved will always be lovely. The trees sculptured on the urn will ever remain in their spring freshness and the musician will always continue to pipe new songs without being tired.
The poet sees a sacrificial procession depicted on the um. The crowd might have come out of some town situated by a river, or on the seashore or on a mountain. The town must have been empty at the time, and it must ever remain empty. Though this poem was not well-received in Keats' day, it has gone on to become one of the most celebrated in the English language. What maidens loth? What wild ecstasy? 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 mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? 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! 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? In the fourth stanza, the speaker examines another picture on the urn, this one of a group of villagers leading a heifer to be sacrificed. The first four lines of each stanza roughly define the subject of the stanza, and the last six roughly explicate or develop it.
As in other odes, this is only a general rule, true of some stanzas more than others; stanzas such as the fifth do not connect rhyme scheme and thematic structure closely at all.
The speaker attempts three times to engage with scenes carved into the urn; each time he asks different questions of it. What maidens loth?
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