John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn"

Dealing with concepts similar to those in one of his other odes, “Ode to a Nightingale,” Keats once again expresses his views on the nature of time and mortality/immortality in his “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” In the poem, Keats presents an ancient Grecian urn depicting scenes that cause the speaker to reflect on the ideal condition of the subjects. In the pictures, the speaker sees visions of life in which nothing can change, fade, or end: love is eternal; nature is untouched by decay; and life cannot be taken. However, as in “Nightingale,” the speaker acknowledges that this unfortunately differs from real life and that the world presented on the urn is only a tease for its observers.
The point of view of the poem is second-person throughout the five stanzas, even during the speaker’s reflection on the urn’s images. In his thoughts about each of the scenes depicted, the speaker addresses the subject(s) of the scene. He gives no description of what he was doing before he came upon the urn, no information about himself or his life, and only a generalization about what will happen when he is gone. Thus, very little information is given about the world Keats’ speaker is from. The message that life as seen on the urn is sweeter in its timelessness than real life is only given through the speaker’s addresses to the urn and the people and objects pictured on it, subtly distancing this everlasting quality from the facts of the real world.
Adding to the tension between the urn’s fantasy world and reality are several instances of irony within the poem. First, Keats calls the urn a “historian” and proceeds to ask it what myths and legends it depicts, ruefully acknowledging that although the urn is a real piece of history, its decoration goes beyond the realms of possible mortal happiness. He asks it what stories it tells “Of deities or mortals, or of both,” yet he goes on to reflect that all the characters of the urn are made immortal; frozen in time, they cannot fade or die. Also, he calls the urn a “Cold Pastoral,” an apparent paradox, referencing the fact that while the scenes on the urn are happy and warm, in an endless summer, they are cold in that they are indeed frozen, and tease mortals with their immunity to time.
The alternation of silence and sound associated with the urn also tend to add to the overall theme of the incompatibility of art’s ideality with life’s reality. Initially, the urn is referred to as the “unravished bride of quietness,” the “foster child of silence.” The speaker then encourages paradoxical unheard melodies, coming from the piper in one of the scenes. He then returns to silence a last time before ultimately foretelling that the urn will speak to future generations, actually giving the urn spoken lines. According to the speaker, the urn will say, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all/Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” The urn in its silence has spoken, but alas, its message is only appropriate for the world that lives painted on it. As a silent work of art, the urn is a testament to beauty, but when its pictures connect to the observer and actually communicate, it only serves as a reminder that the deathless ideal world presented by the urn can never be a living part of reality.