Ode to a Grecian Urn Essay -- John Keats Poems Poetry Vases Essays

Ode to a Grecian Urn In the early 19th century it was non unusual to make a work of art,painting or sculpture a subject of a numbers. Taken literally, the verse formOde to a Grecian Urn is a poem about a vase, but Keats has invertedthe traditional understanding of physical, tangible objects andtransformed them into metaphors for abstract concepts, such as truthand time. An urn is primarily apply to preserve the ashes of the dead.The theme of the Ode, accordingly, has to do with the relationshipbetween imagination and actuality, and the supremacy and immortalityof a work of art if compared to our ordinary life. With the masterfuluse of the device of metaphoric language, Keats has created a melodic,beautifully flowing poem which well serves the purpose he gives it.Keats himself can be assumed to be the speaker, the overall setting isunknown. The tone of the poem reflects the fact that Keats seems trulyawed and astonished by the urn he considers. The poem is written inten-line iamb ic pentameter throughout, which creates a flowingrhythmic effect. The rhyme scheme is unusual, but Keats breaks theform with this five-part poem. The rhyme pattern is A - B - A - B - C- D - E - D - C - E.There is apattern of interlocking paradoxes which persist throughout theOde, contributing to its unity of thought and the development of itsmain theme (that the Urn has managed to achieve immortality). Thefirst stanza sets the pattern of paradoxes that runs throughout thepoem. Firstly in its structure, it is wear into two sections - thefirst four lines are a serial of apostrophes, personifying the urn,and addressing it in its special association to silence and time, andthe last six are a series of questions.... ...self from the urn to considerits overall significance in relation to human life and passion.Beauty is truth, truth beauty sums up the relationships describedthroughout the poem.In the poem Ode On a Grecian Urn, the poet John Keats uses languageand the object of his po em to link abstract actions and concepts tophysical, real, concrete things, in many different ways. Using iambicpentameter, and a unique rhyme scheme, Keats sets up a harmonious,delightfully fluid poem which well serves the purpose he gives it. TheOde on a Grecian Urn forthright confronts the truth that art is notnatural, like leaves on a tree, but artificial.BibliographyRomantic Writings An Anthology (1998) Oxford University PressAbrahams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms (1998) doubting Thomas LearningStephen Bygrave (ed.), Romantic Writings (1996) Open University