Ode on a Grecian Urn
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Notes by Jo
In this ode, Keats studies a marble Greek urn and contemplates the story, history and secrets that lie behind its carved pictures. Throughout the poem, he constantly juxtaposes the immortality of art with the mortality of man. His feelings seem confused, as he is torn between jealousy and bitterness that the urn will live forever and be remembered when he is long dead and forgotten, and pity for this inanimate object that has no experience of life, despite its endurance through the ages.
“Thou still unravished bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time”
From the start, Keats addresses the urn directly, using the pronoun 'thou', and continues throughout to personify it.
The word 'still' in the first line is key to the poem, as it is polysemic: it could mean 'yet', reflecting the sense of anticipation present in the poem, or 'motionless', because the urn does not move.
Keats contrasts the urn's peaceful quality, ('quietness' and 'silence and slow time'), with undertones of violence, suggested with 'unravished bride' and 'foster-child'.
He uses words with long vowel sounds, such as 'silence' and 'slow' to keep the pace slow.
“A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both?”
With 'flowery tale' and 'leaf-fringed legend', Keats uses natural imagery, a central feature of Romantic poetry. It links the urn to nature's transcendence.
He contrasts 'sweetly' with 'haunts', which highlights the two juxtaposing sides of the urn.
On line 7, he introduces the contrast of mortality and immortality, with 'deities or mortals'.
“What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?”
With the last three lines, Keats increases the pace with quick-fire questions, which reveal his longing to know the urn's secrets. Do the questions need to be answered?
'Men or gods' continues the juxtaposition of the mortality with the immortal.
“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone”
Keats uses describes the scene on the urn, in which musicians are pictured, yet their music is unheard. Because he cannot hear the music, in his imagination it is perfect.
He again addresses the inhumanness of the urn – it has no senses, so the pipes cannot play to 'the sensual ear'.
He employs very deliberate assonance with 'ear'/'endeared', 'spirit'/'ditties' and 'no'/'tone', which makes the language very obviously poetic and lyrical – perhaps to show that the poem is art, like the urn.
“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!”
There seems to be a sense of wasted or unfulfilled life, as the 'bold lover' will never reach his goal, though he is so near to it, because he remains in the same moment in time forever. The repetition of 'never' aids this thought.
Keats presents the idea that the urn is caught in an eternity of bliss and love.
“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.”
The repetition of 'for ever' shows the urn's immortality, whilst the duplication of 'happy' suggests that all is not happy.
Like in the first stanza, the word 'still' is key, acting again polysemically.
'Panting' and 'breathing' represent life's breath, and reminds the reader that the urn is not alive. Keats again contrasts human mortality with 'for ever young' immortality. 'Far above' is linked with the gods.
He ends the stanza with the idea that love causes illness: 'a burning forehead, and a parching tongue'. The last two lines are a further reminder of man's mortality and inevitable death.
“Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green alter, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies?”
Keats describes the next picture on the urn, and introduces a new enigma, which will never be answered, as expressed by the adjective 'mysterious'.
There is a semantic field of religious language and imagery throughout the fourth stanza, starting with 'sacrifice' and 'priest'.
Like in the first stanza, the unpleasant image of the 'heifer lowing at the skies' reveals an undertone of violence.
“…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.”
The word 'empty' could also be seen as key to the poem, as it seems to describe Keats' feelings about the urn; despite its beauty, mystery and many stories, it is without life and therefore empty, and therefoe “for evermore will silent be”.
Where in Stanza 2, the urn was presented as being in an eternity of love and bliss, here it has changed to being eternally 'desolate'. This shows Keats' shifting feelings about the urn. It also represents the two paradoxical sides of the urn: in one way its immortality is a positive and joyful thing, but on the other, it is full of desolation, isolation and emptiness. This also has a more literal meaning, as the urn can be physically turned round by the observer, to see the various scenes.
“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'.”
In the final stanza, Keats seems to be pointing an accusing finger at the urn, labelling it a 'silent form', which teases the reader/observer. 'Eternity' could be a link to death.
His exclamation 'Cold Pastoral!' could be seen as one of anger or frustration, and ultimately a rejection of the urn and its lifeless immortality.
'A friend to man' links with the earlier poem Sleep and Poetry, in which Keats writes that poetry should be “a friend, to soothe the cares and lift the thoughts of man”.
He continues his juxtaposition of the mortality of man, demonstrated by 'old age', 'waste' and 'woe', with art's immortality: 'thou shalt remain'.
Keats offers an ambiguous conclusion with the final two lines. Depending on where the quotation marks are placed, it could all be the urn's message, with Keats taking a step back, or it could be his own thoughts. Is he being ironic, as he has learnt, and become less naïve, since he wrote Endymion (“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever”)?
