THE ACADEMIC - Ode on a Grecian Urn

This week in our Literature class, we began studying poetry.  I was apprehensive at first, because it is something that I have notoriously disliked and also been quite terrible at.  However, I've had a really excellent experience with it this time around, and within this post you will find my responses to some discussion questions that I chose to cover for my assignment.

If you haven't read Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats, here is your chance:

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

John Keats. 1795–1821

625. Ode on a Grecian Urn

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-fringed legend haunts about thy shape	5
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?	10
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 leave	15
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never 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!	20
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearièd,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!	25
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.	30
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea-shore,	35
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul, to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.	40
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!	45
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'	50

http://www.bartleby.com/101/625.html

And here are my responses to the discussion questions:

2. How is the happiness in stanza III related to the assertion in lines 11-12 that “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter”?
   
   This line refers to the assertion that the “song” being played by the “fair youth” can only be seen and not heard – and is therefore romanticized in the mind of the person viewing the art because it can be anything that they want it to be.
   
   “Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone ...” (Meyer, 623)
   
   
   It is about the song transcending the sense of “hearing” (as it obviously cannot be heard because it is only a visual depiction of music) and it is being “played” straight through to the core/soul/spirit of the onlooker.
   
   However, the “reality” of this thought is paradoxical, because a song that is “unheard” is not even really a song, is it? The sound (or song) cannot be “sweeter than” anything if it is, in fact, nothing. This paradox illustrates the contemplative, philosophical tone of the poem which questions and contrasts art vs. life, or the philosophy of art vs. reality. (Brooklyn.cuny.edu)
   
   Keats himself suffered a lot of difficulty and emotional trauma in his very short life, so it is very possible that contemplating these overly-joyous images on the urn causes a certain amount of resentment within Keats, causing him to reflect on the images and compare his own personal experiences/reality with his perception of the figures' reality.
   The happiness in stanza III is related to this line because it is also paradoxical when in the context of the entire stanza. Keats talks about the happiness of the images, but also talks about their stagnation. Keats uses the happiness as hyperbole, almost like sarcasm, to discredit the true happiness and beauty of the images.

2. What is the difference between the world depicted on the urn and the speaker's world?

The world depicted on the urn is a joyous celebration with music and love – all positivity. We all know that life is not always like that, but there is a phenomenon about memory that causes us to always try to preserve our most positive memories and experiences. Have you ever thought about how individuals and families preserve their memories through photos? Birthdays, weddings, parties, vacations … all the “happiest” moments of our lives. The same principle has been applied through art in the past – and specifically in this instance.

Keats almost seems offended by this artistic “misrepresentation” of reality; so he compares it to his own reality and also points out many of life's beauties that the figures will never be able to experience. The whole poem seems like a way to assert that his own life (though riddled with trauma) is just as beautiful as the one depicted on the urn, if not more so because it is real.

7. What do the last lines of the poem mean? “Beauty is truth, truth beauty – that is all Ye know on Earth, and all ye need to know.”

My interpretation of this line is actually that the speaker believes that this art in particular is “a friend to man” because it is selling us a beautiful lie. The line itself reaffirms the “truth” of the statement with its use of the word “truth” itself – but I believe that is a purposeful overstatement of the word in order to emphasize the pieces of truth that the statement lacks.

The “lie” is that beauty is all that we will experience on Earth and that it is all we need to know, but that lie serves the purpose of keeping our life worth living. Our ability as human beings to remember the good times that we have in life and emphasize them as much as possible (same thought as the family photos previously mentioned) while doing our best to learn from our tragedies and traumas is what keeps life being “worth” living. It is a function of survival to maintain our mental health.

So, we can appreciate the beauty of the images of this piece of art to let us remember a beautiful part of life – but I believe that Keats' perspective is that, though it serves a purpose, this is a hollow and empty experience if that is all we see life as being (“Cold pastoral”). The pain of reality and the spectrum of the human experience is what emphasizes life's true beauty.


Works Cited:

"Ode on a Grecian Urn" "Ode on a Grecian Urn" N.p., 13 Feb. 2009. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/urn.html

Keats, John. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2012. 623-624. Print.