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

Ode to a Greek Urn In the early 19th century it was non unusual to make a work of art,painting or carving a subject of a verse counterfeit. Taken literally, the poemOde to a Grecian Urn is a poem about a vase, but Keats has invertedthe conventional understanding of physical, tangible objects andtransformed them into metaphors for abstract concepts, such as fairnessand time. An urn is primarily used to preserve the ashes of the dead.The chemical group of the Ode, accordingly, has to do with the relationship in the midst of imagination and actuality, and the supremacy and immortalityof a work of art if compared to our ordinary life. With the consummateuse of the device of figurative words, 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 truly dire and astonished by the urn he considers. The poem is w ritten inten-line iambic pentameter end-to-end, 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 interwoven paradoxes which bear 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 calve 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 relation to tender-hearted 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 langu ageand the object of his poem to link abstract actions and concepts tophysical, real, concrete things, in many an(prenominal) 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 nonnatural, like leaves on a tree, but artificial.Bibliography romanticistic Writings An Anthology (1998) Oxford University wadAbrahams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms (1998) Thomas LearningStephen Bygrave (ed.), Romantic Writings (1996) Open University