Introduction of the Poem:
“Ode on a Grecian Urn” is one of the finest odes of Keats. Keats wrote it in the same circumstances in which he wrote his another great Ode to a Nightingale. A marble urn belonging to Lord Holland is the main source of this poem. The urn is still there in the garden at Holland house, Keniston. Various pictures representing ancient Greek art and culture are carved on this urn. Chief among them are the pictures of beautiful maiden who are being chased by their lovers and they (the maidens) are trying to escape them. A musician is shown playing pipe. This leads the young poet to the world of imagination and he concludes that this unheard melodies must be sweeter than heard melodies. There are beautiful pictures of trees which will remain green and fresh forever. Beneath these trees a bold lover is trying to kiss his beloved Keats is again transported into the world of imagination and says that though the lover has not won her goal, his love for his beloved will always remain as intense as it is now and the beloved will also remain young and beautiful forever. There is an altar; a priest stands close by it. A bull is brought to be sacrificed at the altar. Another source of inspiration that went into the making of this poem is the beauty and grandeur of Greek sculpture revealed to Keats by the famous Elgin marbles.
Summary of the Poem:
Keats is highly impressed by the Greek beauty of the urn. It is a model creation of true beauty which is never decayed by the passing time. The poet makes a myth of its long - lasting beauty that the urn is a bride of quietness. It is a unique quality of this bride that her chastity is still unravished. She is yet a virgin. He imagines that the urn is foster - child of silence and slow - time: the two most destructive forces in the world which decay even massy iron built gates and huge mountains. They have spared the urn from decay because of their foster love for it. There are two diverse pictures engraved on the urn. The pictures expose the romantic and the traditional view of ancient times. It is in this regard, Keats calls the urn a Sylvan historian who is able to present tales of the bygone days in a better way than a poet. The poet is decorated with engraved leaves and flowers. The poet is curious to know much about the pictures full of human figures. The poet wants to know of the figures belong to human race of gods and goddesses. The first picture presents a romantic scene of natural beauty in which a piper is singing songs and a lover is trying to kiss his beloved who is not willing for it. In the second picture a calf is being led for sacrifice, drums are being beaten. The poet asks if the vale of Tempe or Arcady is engraved in the pictures or an imaginary place is depicted.
Perhaps these are the most quoted and most controversial words of Keats that heard melodies are sweet but unheard melodies are sweeter than them. In fact Keats believes in the everlasting attraction of true beauty. To him a thing of beauty is a joy for ever. He regards the songs of the piper, engraved on the urn, as better than songs produced by living human beings. Day to day we are attracted by numberless songs produced by human artists. These songs attract us but for a limited period and then after they begin to tire our mind. While we are not able to hear the sound of songs produced by the piper engraved on the urn. So its freshness can never be stale. But a very high sensibility is required to listen to these songs. These, are not to be heard by physical ears but soul. These songs fill soul with true joy. These songs are never stale. The blessing of everlasting freshness is enjoyed by the figures engraved on the urn. The handsome young man will never be old. He will never be tired. His songs will always be fresh and the tree will never lose its leaves. Everything engraved on the urn will always remain the same. The lover will never be able to kiss his beloved. But it is not a matter to feel disappointed for the lover's passion will never decline and the beloved will always remain attractive. Their passion will never decay with the passing of time.
The branches of the tree pictured on the urn are cheerful for they will always remain green and fresh. They will never shed their leaves and there will always be spring on it. Similarly the musician carved on the urn is also blessed for he will never be weary of his melody. The song he is piping will always be new. Above all these things, the lovers carved on the urn are more cheerful and blessed for their love is still as warm as it has ever been and it will remain same in the ages to come. As it is never gratified, the passions of the lovers will always remain young and intense. Their love is superior to that of the earthly love. The earthly love, when consummated leaves an unpleasant effect on the lovers. They experience weakness. They are left with burning forehead and parched tongue.
This stanza brings to consideration unheard laments of the young cow. The priest and his followers being fanatic or superstitious can't hear them but those whose imagination is lofty enough to hear soundless songs piped to the spirit rather than sensual ear ought to feel the pain of these laments and stop the evil of animal sacrifice going on in the name of a religion than may or must never encourage merciless slaughter of innocent creatures. The poet puts interrogation to stress the point if the priest is really just, if the killing is proper, if the morning is pious in spite of such an unholy action. It is the curse of those silent laments that the priest will never be able to sacrifice the cow. His followers will never be able to return and their village will always remain deserted.
The urn has a Grecian shape. It attracts the poet very much. It presents two lively pictures engraved on the urn. The pictures have the blessing of eternity. Nothing engraved in the pictures is subject to change. It reflects the basic instincts of mankind. The man's instinct to enjoy the beauty and love of a woman by force and sacrifice of the humble and innocent ones in the name of religion without understanding what true religion is. The urn is a cold pastoral for it is silent. Its pictures have a natural background. Time or old age decays everything but it has spared the urn. The poet believes the urn will always exist to inspire the mankind to understand truth, true beauty and true joy. The urn will always convey the universal message that “beauty is truth and truth beauty”. If truth is ugly it is false and if beauty is not true it is ugly. In human life beauty and truth can never be separated. If a man understands this idea, his mind will never be confused. He will never be attracted by falsehood and ugliness. He will be able to distinguish between true beauty and apparent beauty as well real truth and apparent truth.
Critical Appreciation of the Poem:
Introduction:
The poem entitled “Ode on A Grecian Urn” was composed in May 1819. Urn is a vase - like pitcher in which the Greeks kept the ashes of the dead. The urn had carvings and artistic patterns which made them work of art, hence a piece of display also. As it is known Keats was interested in Greek art, literature and sculpture. He might have seen many urns, or pieces of urns in British Museum or in the illustrated works of art and literature. Keats did not have any particular Urn in his mind when he wrote this poem. It is Keats ' creative faculty, the power of imagination, which shaped many a scene and floral pattern into one organic whole. The Urn of Keats is an urn of his own rich creative imagination. The poem is a perfect illustration of Keats’ dictum that “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.” Keats made his urn a thing of beauty and it is a joy forever. He blended several threads from his readings and experiences - his love of Greek art, the nearness of pain and pleasure, the stormy nature of passions and the severity of the ideal alongwith the equation of Beauty and Truth.
Vivid and Concrete Picture:
A striking quality of Keats ' entire poetry is fully revealed in this ode. Keats had a genius for drawing vivid and concrete pictures mostly with a sensuous appeal. The whole of this poem is a series of such pictures passionate men and gods chasing reluctant maidens, the flute - players playing their ecstatic music, the fair youth trying to kiss his beloved, the happy branches of the trees, the worshippers going to a place of worship in order to offer a sacrifice with a mysterious priest to lead them, a little town which will always remain desolate - these are pictures which Keats vividly brings before our minds. The passion of men and gods, and the reluctance of maidens to be caught or seized is beautifully depicted in the following two lines:
“What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?”
Here is the picture of a bold lover trying to get a kiss which will never materialise:
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal—
The ecstasy of the passion of youthful love is depicted in the following lines:
More happy love! More happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd
For ever panting and for ever young.
Superiority of Art:
An important idea in this ode is that, art is superior to real life in certain respects. The trees depicted on the urn will always enjoy spring. The flute players shown on the urn will never tire of playing tunes which are ever new. The passion of the lovers depicted on the urn will never decline, and the beauty of the beloved will never fade. Heard melodies are sweet but those unheard are sweeter. The music of the flute - players depicted on the urn has a sweetness which music in real life can never possess.
Unity of Truth and Beauty:
The central thought of this ode is the unity of Truth and Beauty. Beauty and Truth, says Keats, are not two separate things. They are one and the same thing seen from two different aspects. What is beautiful must be true, and what is true must be beautiful. There can be no question of Beauty being separated from Truth. Every piece of art which is based on truth or reality must be beautiful; and every beautiful work of art must have a hard core of truth in it. Thus Keats seems to reject the school of gross realism in art on one side, and the school of ornament for ornament's sake on the other. Keats may have no right to frame a law for the artist, but the idea contained in the final stanza of the poem may justly be regarded as his main contribution to speculative thought.
Keats’ Poetic Power:
This ode represents the maturity and the height of Keats' poetic power. His poetry is essentially imaginative and emotional, but his greatest poems possess also an intellectual appeal. This ode, for instance, represents an exquisite fusion of the imaginative, emotional, and intellectual elements. The moral of the urn, namely, that Beauty is Truth and Truth is Beauty, has an intellectual basis. But, apart from this, the poem is charged with emotion and shows rich imagination. The first three stanzas, especially, have a passionate quality about them. Lines already quoted above in a different context amply show that.
Form and Structure:
This ode is written in a regular stanza of ten lines, consisting of a quatrain and a sestet. Thus it does not follow the pattern of the long unequal stanzas of the Ode to Psyche. Like most of his other poems, this ode shows Keats' genius for coining original, striking, and appropriate phrases. “Sylvan historian”, “leaf - fringed legend”, “a heart high - sorrowful and cloy'd”, “Cold pastoral”, and “Fair attitude” are some of the examples; while the statement “Beauty is Truth, Truth is Beauty”, is a neat and compact expression of a profound fact, an expression which is one of the most often quoted from English poetry.
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