Ode on a Grecian Urn - It's a popular one!

John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” immortalizes the already immortal urns left to posterity by the Ancient Greeks, while simultaneously attempting to immortalize his own poetry. Keats’ choice of form, meter, and subject all elevate his poem to the level of a canonical Grecian work.

“Ode on a Grecian Urn” verbally depicts a variety of scenes that have been painted onto a Grecian Urn. These urns were a specific art form that came out of Ancient Greece. They depicted events that were significant in the cultural lives of the Greeks. Keats begins his ode by generally questioning the nature of the Grecian urn. He then describes the many images that are depicted on the urn. These images include lovers just before a kiss, trees in the spring, a cow being led to a sacrifice, and a funeral procession. Keats concludes by considering the immortality of the urn. The images on the urn will never change, they are in the past, but having already taken place, are as unknown as the events of the future. A man can be overwhelmed thinking of the eternity of the past and of the future. Keats concludes with a final thought, which transcends history and the future: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty…” That is the only statement of fact that will remain constant throughout the history of the earth.

Keats’ choice to write his poem in the form of an ode automatically links him to the classical Ancient Greek poets. The ode was a popular form of lyrical verse for ancient poets. It was a more elevated form, which could be performed by a chorus or put to music. However, Keats’ ode is silent. Keats almost acknowledges this in his first stanza, “Thou still unravished bride of quietness,/Thou foster child of silence and slow time.” These lines not only refer to an image on the urn that is silent and will be forevermore, but indicate the silence of his immortalized work. His words stand on a page to be read by an individual, but not performed by a chorus or set to music with a flute. Keats repeats this sentiment in his second stanza: “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 also links his own ode to the poetry of the Ancient Greeks with his metrical unites. Keats writes in iambic pentameter, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable totaling five stressed syllables per line. This meter was made famous to most literate citizens of the world by Shakespeare, but it was in existence long before The Bard became The Bard. Iambic pentameter lends the ode a highly rhythmical quality, making it easy to set to music. Because Keats has already established that his ode will not be put to music, he uses the meter of the iambs to create his own rhythm. This rhythm remains constant until the final stanza, when the most famous lines of the ode “Cold Pastoral!” and “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” appear. These lines comply with the rules of syllables and stresses when read robotically. However, the natural pronunciations of the words themselves break up the lilting rhythm of the ode. This draws attention to these lines, which seem to make the point of Keats’ poem. In this line, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” Keats states all that man is privileged to know in life.

The imagery Keats uses to describe the urn draws the reader into the beauty of the urn, and thus into the meaning of his ode. Keats enlivens the depictions by going beyond stating, “two lovers pose as if about to kiss” by describing the desire of the lover to finally enjoy the sweet lips of his conquest. Rather than stating that “a tree is in bloom,” Keats calls the boughs happy and paints the picture of the warmth and passion of a perpetual spring. In writing this poem, Keats not only immortalizes the images on the urn, but the human emotion behind the events it depicts: the passion of two young lovers, the despair of a community in mourning, the desperation of a cow being led to his demise. In this, Keats demonstrates that “beauty is truth, truth beauty.” His poetic rendering of these events and images makes them true; they come to life for all those who read this poem as for those who are depicted on the urn itself. The experiences described here become part of the experiences of the reader, and thus become true. Thus, Keats has written a canonical poem since his words will be the words by which mankind will remember these events, these images, and these emotions. By adopting the style of an Ancient Greek Poet, Keats adopts their authority and acclaim as well.