Examining the Grecian Urn” John Keats’ poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn” tells the story of a man who finds an ancient urn and examines the images depicted on it marveling at the state of the urn’s beauty. He thinks of the urn as some kind of storyteller. As he inspects the images he wonders about the legends they recount and the place they came from. As he slowly turns the urn he first views a depiction of a group of men that seem to be following a group of women, he wonders what story the picture could be telling. He continues to turn the urn and he sees a picture of a boy playing a pipe while lying with his lover beneath a tree. He comments on the pipe’s melodies saying that they are sweeter than normal melodies because they are unheard and unchanged …show more content…
This serves to reinforce the point of the urn being a storyteller that can teach people valuable lessons (Havens 212.) In line 3 the urn is compared to a “sylvan historian” by use of a metaphor. This further goes to show how the urn is a storyteller and how it is closely related to plants and forests (Sweester.) In lines 29-30 two different devices are used. Metonymy is used to link the musician’s heart to his feelings of being “high-sorrowful and cloy 'd.” Then synecdoche is used to explain the downside of love, that being a fever and thirst represented by "burning forehead, and a parching tongue." These devices serve to illustrates the narrators conflicted feelings towards the nature of the lovers on the urn and their love (Napierkowski.) Once again personification is used in lines 21 and 22, the tree branches, or "boughs," are personified as being "happy," and they never say goodbye, or "adieu.” This reinforces the poems connection to the forest and plant life. (Mazzeno 1-3.) Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is often referred to as his best work. Not only that but some even call it one of the greatest Romantic poems ever. The poem shows art as a representation of reality and outpouring of the soul. The last two lines however have been subject to much debate and criticism. Some say that they are a blemish on an otherwise magnificent piece and others argue over how to make sense of them. Whatever the case “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is a fantastic poem and has shown to have significant staying power in modern literature.
John Keats’s illness caused him to write about his unfulfillment as a writer. In an analysis of Keats’s works, Cody Brotter states that Keats’s poems are “conscious of itself as the poem[s] of a poet.” The poems are written in the context of Keats tragically short and painful life. In his ...
Keats’ poetry explores many issues and themes, accompanied by language and technique that clearly demonstrates the romantic era. His poems ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ and ‘Bright Star’ examine themes such as mortality and idealism of love. Mortality were common themes that were presented in these poems as Keats’ has used his imagination in order to touch each of the five senses. He also explores the idea that the nightingale’s song allows Keats to travel in a world of beauty. Keats draws from mythology and christianity to further develop these ideas. Keats’ wrote ‘Ode To A Nightingale’ as an immortal bird’s song that enabled him to escape reality and live only to admire the beauty of nature around him. ‘Bright Star’ also discusses the immortal as Keats shows a sense of yearning to be like a star in it’s steadfast abilities. The visual representation reveal these ideas as each image reflects Keats’ obsession with nature and how through this mindset he was able
It has been acknowledged by many scholars that Yeats' study of Blake greatly influenced his poetic expression. This gives rise to the widely held assertion that Yeats is indebted to Blake. While I concur with this assertion, I feel that the perhaps greater debt is Blake's.
Imagery and symbolism merged to express his imagination, he became a unique poet in an evolving world where Romanticism was quickly expanding globally, not into a movement, but a way of thinking. Keats’ mother and brother, and eventually he too, passed away of tuberculosis. At the time of his brother 's passing, he developed ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’. ‘La Belle’ expressed Keats’ intellect and creativity, although at the same time he himself expressed his angst and depression for the loss of his brother. His poem ‘Bright Star’ was written in a part of his life in which a woman had influenced Keats’ greatly, so much in fact that he was driven to write ‘Bright Star’ in appreciation and celebration of the love of his life. These poems reflect Keats’ intellect, originality, creativity, and his ability to merge the contextual aspects of his life and his imagination with the ideals and concepts of Romanticism to create powerful
To conclude it has been firmly established that Keats had a profound ability to use literary techniques. Throughout his all his Odes he uses a variety of different devices, bringing forth our senses of taste, sight, smell, hearing and touch, creating an overall unique sensual experience. In reading his poetry I have gained a new found adoration and insight to the world of poetry. Reading deeper into the use of certain words and images has demonstrated that each word is as important as the previous, or next in this establishment of arousing ones senses. The world of sense has truly been evoked throughout Keats masterpieces.
John Keats’ belief in the beauty of potentiality is a main theme of him great “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” This idea appears in many of his other poems that precede this ode, such as “The Eve of St. Agnes,” but perhaps none of Keats’ other works devote such great effort to showcase this idea. The beauty of the Grecian Urn (likely multiple urns), and its strength as a symbol, is a masterful mechanism. Just about all facets of this poem focus on an unfulfilled outcome: but one that seems inevitably completed. Thus, while the result seems a foregone conclusion, Keats’ static world creates a litany of possible outcomes more beautiful than if any final resolution.
These three metaphors exemplify beauty, but also an end to nature and life. Death is slowly creeping up to him and taking over his life as realized in this comparison of him to nature. The poem shows the need to seize the moment in life before death. The last couplet talks about the topic of love and the power of it. Love lasts through the struggles in life, and the changes of seasons. Love of life keeps us from realizing that an end will eventually come. “This thou perciev’st, which makes thy love more strong.” Encompasses the idea that although everything comes to an end, love still fuels everything within a person. He realizes everything will come to an end and death is inevitable but the passion is still
John Keats employs word choices and word order to illustrate his contemplative and sympathetic tone. The tone could be interpreted as pessimistic and depressing because the majority of the poem focuses on Keats’ fear of death. However, if the reader views the last two lines of the poem in light which brings redemption, one might see that Keats merely wants to express the importance of this dominant fear in his life. He does not desire for his audience to focus on death, but to realize that man does not have control of when it comes. The poet uses poetic diction, a popular technique of the early nineteenth century. The poem also demonstrates formal diction that Keats is often known for. Although Keats meant for most of his words to interpret with denotative meanings, he does present a few examples of allusion and connotation. His connotations include “teeming,” defined as plen...
Renowned poet of the Romantic era, John Keats, is known for his thought provoking poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn”. Within this poem, Keats analyzes an urn depicting various scenes from history. While Keats contemplation of the beauty of the urn is apparent throughout the work, there is a particular stanza that is particularly noteworthy. The fifth, and final, stanza of Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” states,
John Keats's poem "An Ode to a Grecian Urn", is written encompassing both life and art. Keats uses a Grecian urn as a symbol of life. He refers to the Greek piece of art as being immortal, with its messages told in endless time. Walter J. Bate explains that the Sisobas Vase that Keats traced at the home of his artist friend Haydon, the Townly Vase at the British Museum, or the Borghese Vase in the Louvre, are suggested by scholars to possibly be the ones that Keats had in mind while writing his poem (510-511). Being that Keats had quite a respectable knowledge of Greek art, it is also quite possible that he had no particular vase in mind at all. Outside of that, our chief concern is the meaning of the poem itself. As author Jack Stillinger proposes, "the speaker in a romantic period begins in the real world, takes off in mental flight to visit the ideal then returns home to the real." However, because of his experiences during flight, he never returns to where he began and will be, however slight, forever changed (3).
Keats is one of the greatest lovers and admirers of nature. In his poetry, we come across exquisitely beautiful descriptions of the wonder sigts and senses of nature. He looks with child-like delight at the objects of nature and his whole being is thrilled by what he sees and hears. Everything in nature for him is full of wonder and mystery - the rising sun, the moving cloud, the growing bud and the swimming fish.
...ecian Urn”, “To Autumn” takes place in the real world and does not mention immortality. In “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, Keats attempts to grasp the apparent immortality of the urn he is observing. He envies the timelessness of the figures on the urn and the happiness those figures seem to enjoy. Keats also envies the nightingale in “Ode to a Nightingale” and its natural happiness that is only possible because it transcends time. Trapped in time, Keats believes that he can only ever be happy through intoxication, which provides an escape from the real world. Until he wrote “To Autumn”, Keats considers immortality and timelessness as the keys to experience happiness and the beauty of the world. However, in “To Autumn”, Keats remains in reality, far from the improbable ideas of eternal life, and seems to both accept death and find the intrinsic beauty death can bring to life.
In "Ode on Melancholy," Keats welcomes the truth before him. He understands that bliss and suffering are one. To be able to completely have joy, one must also experience sorrow or melancholy to its fullest. “Ode on Melancholy” can be distinguished from "Ode to a Nightingale" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn," where the poet is a dreamer that is trying to escape his own reality into the sorrow less, eternal world of the nightingale and the urn. “Keats valued intensity of emotion, intensity of thought, and intensity of experience; fulfillment comes from living and thinking passionately. Keats does not shrink from the implication that feeling intensely means that grief or depression may well cause anguish and torment” (website junks).
While Coleridge describes the process of creating Romantic poetry and encourages poets to use the combination of nature and imagination in this process, Keats is more focused on reality and is well aware of the limitations of the Grecian urn. With the poets’ admiration of nature present in both poems …… to be completed.
When talking about poetry and Romanticism, one of the most common names that come to mind is John Keats. Keats’ lifestyle was somewhat different from his contemporaries and did not fit the Romantic era framework, this is most likely the reason he stood out from the rest. Keats wrote many poems that are still relevant, amongst them Ode to a Nightingale, which was published for the very first time in July, 1819. The realistic depth and lyrical beauty that resonates in Ode to a Nightingale is astounding. Though, his career was rather short, Keats expressed a deep yearning to rise above misery and celebrate life via his consciousness and imagination. Themes of life and death play out in a number of his poems. This essay seeks to discuss Keats’s representation of mortality and immortality, specifically in his poem Ode to a Nightingale.