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

Ode to a Grecian Urn In the early 19th degree Celsius it was not unusual to make a work of artwork,painting or sculpture a subject of a poem. Taken literally, the poemOde to a Grecian Urn is a poem about a vase, just Keats has anatropousthe traditional understanding of physical, tangible objects andtransformed them into metaphors for abstract concepts, such as truthand time. An urn is primarily used to preserve the ashes of the dead.The theme of the Ode, accordingly, has to do with the kinbetween imagination and actuality, and the supremacy and immortalityof a work of art if compargond to our unremarkable life. With the masterfuluse of the device of figurative language, Keats has created a melodic,beautifully sleek poem which well serves the map he gives it.Keats himself can be fancied 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 verse line 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 interwoven paradoxes which persist throughout theOde, contributing to its unity of thought and the development of its principal(prenominal) 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 split into two sections - thefirst four lines are a series 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 congress to human life and passion.Beauty is truth, truth beauty sums up the relationships expoundthroughout the poem.In the poem Ode On a Grecian Urn, the poet trick Keats uses languagean d the object of his poem 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 squarely confronts the truth that art is notnatural, like leaves on a tree, but artificial.BibliographyRomantic belles-lettres An Anthology (1998) Oxford University PressAbrahams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms (1998) Thomas nurtureStephen Bygrave (ed.), Romantic Writings (1996) Open University