Background Information
From the sweet melodies of the "unheard music" to the "truthfulness of beauty", Ode on a Grecian Urn ⚱️ is definitely the most influential as well as famous ode ever written by John Keats, appeared in Annals of the Fine Arts in 1820. There is so much to talk about the poem that it is very hard to jot it down in one article in a critical appreciation. Although many researchers assert that Keats must have been inspired by the two essays written by Benjamin Haydon. But Keats visit to many museums in which he saw a great collection of vases may have stirred his imagination to address an old but Grecian Urn. The poem focuses on images engraved on the urn.
Summary
The poem begins with the speaker directly addressing the Urn by calling it the "bride of quietness" as well as the son of "silence and slow time". (Keats wants to state that the Urn shall remain unchanged. ) Then the addressor tells the readers about the profession of the urn which is to tell the history. There is a story illustrated on the urn that may involve either gods or men or both. People are seen playing on pipes and a forest is accompanied by different people. The addressor is uncertain about the actual story behind the illustrations. (So, he tries to find his own meaning inside the illustration).
The poet tries to listen to the silent music played by the pipers painted on the urn and finds it more sweeter than the "heard melodies". Because the picture shall remain static, the piper sitting under the shady tree shall keep on playing. Then the addressor turns to the trees which will never shed their leaves. The passion of love between the maiden who is chased by the boy and the boy himself shall remain the same.
Then the poet shifts his poetic spectacles to the other side of the urn in which a cow sacrifice is depicted and a procession of the on-lookers being led by a priest. The addressor feels anxious to tell us that the people engraved on the urn are long dead but the urn shall continue to describe their stories. And this is the beauty of the truth.
Themes
Death or mortality of human beings is one major theme of this poem that is evident in both inside as well as the outward appearance of the poem. The urn itself stands as a symbol of death because an urn is used to keep the ashes of the dead in it. However, the urn of the ode shows a Classical civilization that has passed its share in the grand scheme of time and no longer exists. Moreover, the poem also gives reference to the death when the poet alludes to the illustration of the sacrifice.
The poem is written in praise of beauty that, according to the poet, is truth itself. Therefore, the second most prevalent theme is the importance of art as a medium to showcase beauty and truth. Truth is something that is exact and concrete while beauty is something that casts a spell upon our five senses. The main difference between the two is the truth can be both bitter as well as sweet but the nature of beauty is always appealing. Then why does Keats consider them the same? The answer is, again, death. Death or mortality is the ultimate truth counter to life. The urn depicts the victory of death in eloquent terms. But death is beauty as well. Remember that along with other Romantics, Keats was an escapist too. Every escapist is desirous to escape from the worries of life. And the permanent solution for the escape is death which makes it horrifyingly beautiful. But art is something that keeps both truth and beauty alive, forever. Just look at the picture of the urn. The engraving shows the beauty of the culture of the ancient Greece. The people depicted on the urn are no longer living but through the immortal power of the art, their activities are preserved. While the same can be said for the art of poetry. If we know about the urn and the people of the urn, that is because of the immortal power of poetry.
How is the Urn a History without Footnotes?
The ode is a representation of the love of ancient history by the poet of the nineteenth century. Keats calls the urn a 'Sylvian' Historian which represents the history of the forest? No way! Universally speaking, the illustration engraved on the urn makes it an Idyllic Historian. It is idyllic in the sense of the presence of trees animals and simple men. The urn showcases the earlier development of the modern civilization. Cleanth Brooks calls the poem "A History without Footnotes" while disagreeing with the last lines of the poem. Footnotes present explanations of previously unknown terms, places or persons. Ode on a Grecian Urn is rightly a history without footnotes because the poem is written in a simple language that does not require a heavy dose of knowledge.
Literary Devices
The ode incorporates a number of literary devices to add a distinctive touch to it as well as to broaden the scope of meanings. The first literary device that hits us in the poem is symbolism. Keats has implied many symbols that refer to something else. For instance, the symbols of trees and plants denote to the season of spring as well as youth. Similarly, the urn itself has been used as a symbol of the continuation of time, life and death.
Personification is present in different sections of the ode. For example, by calling the urn "Sylvian Historian", a child of "silence and slow time" and by attributing the quality of musicians to the pipe. Synecdoche, which is the representation of a thing as a whole through one of its parts, can also be traced in the poem through the examples of denoting to fever by "burning forehead" and thirst through "patching tongue". While there is a striking instance of paradox at the beginning of the second stanza,
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
...
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Keats, here suggests that the unheard melody can only be heard through a spirit, which is paradoxical.
Setting and Imagery
The poem takes place in an unknown place surrounded by a cluster of trees. We are uncertain whether it is a forest or a village. However, the sensuous images like, "happy boughs", "burning forehead" and "marble men and maidens".
Structural Analysis
The poem is structurally divided into five stanzas of ten lines each. So, the collective sum of the verses in this ode reaches to the number fifty. The rhyme scheme of this poem follows ABABCDCDECDE in every stanza. While the rhythmic pattern of this ode is iambic pentameter.
Conclusion
Ode on a Grecian Urn is a beautiful and melodious mix of the truthfulness of beauty and history of the i=ancients. But it has a message under its disposal that Murray sums up in his apt remarks in the poem,
It has a precious message to mankind, not as a thing of beauty which gives exquisite delight to the senses, but as a symbol and prophecy of a comprehensive human life which mankind can attain.
Sources and Suggested Readings
- Critical Evaluation of Selected Poems by John Keats - Famous Products - Page 110
- Literary Criticism - Current Notes - Page 319
- Lectures of Sir Saffi
- https://literarydevices.net/ode-on-a-grecian-urn/
- https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/poetry/ode-grecian-urn/summary
- https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/john-keats/ode-on-a-grecian-urn
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ode_on_a_Grecian_Urn
It's superb sir u have done it in a best way ever.
ReplyDeletethanks, fella.
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