About the Author:
John Keats was born on 31 October 1795 at Moorgate, London and died on 23 February 1821 at Rome, Italy. His father was Thomas Keats a stableman or hostler and his mother was Frances Jennings Keats. Keats belonged to the later generation of Romantic Poets. ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ is Keats’ one of the masterpieces.
He lived for a very short period of 25 years. He died of tuberculosis. His works came to light after his death and he became famous posthumously.
Keats had a style heavily loaded with sensualities. In his odes when Keats was eight his father died from a skull fracture after falling from a horse. And his mother passed away of tuberculosis too when he was of fourteen.
Later he started practicing as a surgeon with Thomas Hammond a surgeon.
‘O Solitude’ his sonnet was published in ‘The Examiner’. This was the first appearance of Keats’ poetry in print. At this his friend Charles Cowden Clarke called it his friend’s red letter day.
“We hate poetry that has a palpable design upon us.” – John Keats
Hunt stated about Keats – “A new school of poetry.”
Keats wrote to his friend Bailey, “I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affections and the truth of the imagination.
What imagination seizes as beauty must be truth. This line has been transmitted into the line of ‘Ode on A Grecian Urn’.
Six Great Odes of Keats –
Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn’ poem is the most famous poem. Here we have given you the list of six great odes of Keats –
- Ode to Psyche
- Ode to Indolence (Left unpublished)
- Ode to Nightingale
- Ode on a Grecian Urn
- Ode on Melancholy (Shortest)
- Ode to Autumn
He was broken down badly by the death of his brother Tom in 1818. Two women came into his life Fanny Brown and Isabella.
When he died his last wish was to be placed under a tombstone only the words – “Here lives one whose name was writ in water.”
The poetry has sublimity, sensuousness, imagination and melancholy.
The Concept of Negative Capability: Negative capability is the capability of artists to pursue ideas of beauty, perfection and sublimity even when it leads them into intellectual confusion and uncertainty as opposed to a preference for philosophical certainty over artistic beauty. John Keats first used term in 1817 in a letter to his brother.
Major Works of Keats:
- Ode on a Grecian Urn: It was published in 1820 in the “Annals of Five Art (a magazine) with ‘Ode to a Nightingale. Keats included this poem in his 1820 collection ‘Lamia Isabella’ The Eve of St. Agnes, and other poems.
- Endymion: It is a famous poem written by John Keats. He dedicated this poem to the late poet Thomas Chatterton. The very first line of the poem “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” It is written in iambic pentameter (heroic couplets). Keats termed this work ‘a trial of my powers of imagination’. The mansion of many apartments is a metaphor that the poet John Keats expressed in his letters to John Hamilton Reynolds. He compares the human to a large mansion of many apartments.
- On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer: It is a sonnet by Keats. This is the first nature poem on Keats.
- Ode to a Nightingale: It is a personal poem which describes Keats’ journey into the state of Negative Capability.
- Hyperion a Fragment: It is an epic poem. The poem was stopped in the third book. This was unfinished poem.
- The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream: It was written against the unfinished work, Hyperion. This poem was published posthumously.
- Bright Star: It is a poem (sonnet) by John Keats. This poem is an emotional declaration of immortal, constant love.
- The poetry of Earth: It is a poem written by John Keats. This poem expresses the beauty of nature. The beauty is the source of inspiration. The poet expresses that the nature has eternal beauty.
- The Eve of St. Agnes: This is a poem by Keats, published in 1820. It was one of his finest and influential work in the 19th century literature.
Other Important works of Keats:
- Sleep and Poetry
- The Eve of Saint Mark (It was unfinished)
- Isabella, or the Pot of Basil
- To My Brothers
- Three Young Poets (Shelley, Keats, Reynolds)
Ode on a Grecian Urn
About the Poem: This poem is written in iambic Pentameter. It was written in 1819 and published in 1820.
This poem by Keats deals with the enigma of ‘truth’ and ‘beauty’.
Total lines: 50
Total stanzas: 5 (10 lines in each stanza)
Rhyme Scheme:
Stanza 1: abab cde dce
Stanza 2: abab cde ced
Stanza 3: abab cde cde
Stanza 4: abab cde cde
Stanza 5: abab cde dce
Ode on a Grecian Urn line to line explanation
Stanza 1
Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,
Thou foster – child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf – fring’d legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Temple or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What made pursuit? What struggle to escape?
eWhat pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
Explanation: The poem starts with addressing the urn an unravished bride of quietness or it is sanctified. The poet saw this urn in a museum where on this urn a rustic Greek art has been carved. He relates the urn with quietness. The picture carved on the urn reveal the art, humanity, history etc.
Next the poet says that the urn is the child of silence and slow time. It has been reared by the time and silence. It has taken a long time to develop. The poet addresses the urn as sylvan historian. The urn is lying in the museum and so many people come and go.
They see the art carved on it, thus the urn tells them the history. Sylvan means the rural nature. The urn tells the story of the past. The urn can tell a beautiful story than poetry. In the line 5 the poet is undetermined about the pictures on the urn and says what the leaf fringed legends are. Either they are deities or they are human beings or both.
The scenes the poet sees on the urn behind the pictures and recognizes them either the Temple Valley or the Arcady valley of Greece. He wonders that those are humans or gods. Why the maidens are running. Whom they hate. Why the lovers are chasing them foolishly or madly. The maids have struggled to escape from the boys. Who the people are those piping the pipes and timbrels. What the wild ecstasy is. The wild ecstasy replaces extreme happiness.
Stanza 2
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth beneath the trees, thou canst not love
Thy song, nor ever canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss.
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!
Explanation: The second stanza starts with a line having a paradox. The melodist is playing on the pipes. The poet expresses that the heard melodies are sweet but the unheard are sweeter. Here he talks of the imaginative music, music in our soul. Although we can’t hear it but it is sweeter. The starting three lines of this stanza focus on the image of piper in the line 10. And says that the music of urn’s piper is sweeter. This music represents the music of pure beauty. These lines have the mystery of art, truth and beauty. The poet prefers to the world of fantasy to the physical world. The superiority of art is preferred to the real life.
Here the poet redirects the scene from the first stanza. You soft pipes (flutes), keep on playing. Play not for the sensual ears (physical ears) but more pleasant in the spirit in no voice. Play the song in no tone that is very pleasant to the spirit.
He says to the fair youth singing under the trees that you cannot leave you singing nor will the trees be autumned. Next he says to the bold lover that he can’t kiss his beloved although he is near his beloved. But counsels him not to be unhappy. The beloved will never be fade nor her beauty.
Though you cannot get your happiness kissing her but your love will not wither and your beloved will be fair to you. And she will be beautiful forever.
Stanza 3
Ah, happy, happy bough! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
Forever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoy’d.
For ever panting, and forever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high – sorrowful and cloy’d,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.
Explanation: In the third stanza the poet praises the trees that they can never fall their leaves. And the trees will never say adieu to spring. The boughs of the nature on the urn will never shed their leaves.
And the melodist is happy, he does not weary. He will always sing songs. His songs will never be old. The love of art on the urn is more happy. It is always warm. It is always to be enjoyed.
Love is full of life and it is forever young. A clear liveliness has been shown in the art. The love of our world is different from that of urn’s that leaves a heart alone and isolated. The head is in the thoughtfulness and dissatisfied and a parching tongue.
Stanza 4
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead’st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
All and her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea shore,
Or mountain built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
And, little town thy streets forever more
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e’er return.
Explanation: This stanza starts with a questioning tone. There is a scene of religious ceremony. A mysterious priest leading a cow to a sacrificial place. He is taking the heifer to be sacrificed into the green altar. The poet calls the priest mysterious because he does not know him. There is a silken garb over the heifer and it is garlanded too. The heifer is lowing at the sky as if it knows about the sacrifice.
All this scene seems to be near a river or sea. The little town is meant to be built with mountain/stones. And there is a peaceful citadel in the little town. This town is empty because the people of this town are going to the sacrificial place this pious morning.
He addresses the little town that its streets will be empty or silent forever. Not a soul (Not a person) will return to tell why the streets of the town are desolate or empty. This whole stanza is mysterious, as who the priest is. Who the people are those going to the sacrificial place and why the town is empty forever.
Stanza 5
O Attic shape! Fair Attitude! With brede
of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe –
Than ours, a friend to man, to whim thou say’st
Beauty is truth, truth beauty, – that is all.
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
Explanation: The poet addresses the urn as ‘Attic shape and fair attitude. Fair attitude represents beauty. The embroided figures of marble men and women are carved with forest branches and pressed weed or grass. The life on the urn tease us. As humans try to understand the eternity. They become out of thought and perplexed. The eternity is seemed teasing us. The poet addresses the urn as ‘cold pastoral.’ The life on the urn is silent. The rural scenes pictured on the urn are silent and cold.
The poet expresses his grief and says when the current generation will die out, the art on the urn shall remain, that is still. Then midst of any sufferings and sorrows the urn (a friend to man) will give a message that, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty – that is all.” The word beauty replaces the imagination. You know that on the earth only imagination and art, are the truth and that you need to know the only truth. Beauty represents the admiration of the urn and the truth represents the reality.
Beauty is truth, truth beauty – that is all. T. S. Eliot says about this line – “A serious flaw in a beautiful poem.”