summary of John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn"

Ode on a Grecian Urn

John Keats

John Keats is a great English poet of the Romantic age. The poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn” presents the complexity between art and reality.  This poem is written in the pattern of Ode, means a type of lyrical poem usually gives the writer’s personal emotions about a person or an object. This poem is written in five stanzas each containing ten lines. Keats observation and his personal emotion towards the Greek Urn are depicted in this poem.

Keats looks at a Greek Urn which is decorated with many images in a museum or in his imagination. The following five stanzas are his imagination or his personal feel towards the urn. He calls the urn as an untouched bride of quietness. The urn is seen as a female whose foster parents are silence and time, as it is not destroyed by time and represent the past silently. The pictures on the urn give more sweet tales than the writers could and thus he calls the urn as ‘sylvan historian’. As the urn presents the Greek rustic life of the past, it is seen as a historian. By calling the urn as historian Keats looks at the urn closely and he could see the borders by a line of leaves around the pictures. Each picture has its own tale. It has the shapes of gods, humans or both of them present in the valley Tempe or in the region of Arcady. He could see some images and speculates whether they are god or men, some girls are being chased by some wild boys, musical instruments are being played and humans or god becomes wild due to the music. 

Now the poet looks at the specific picture where a piper plays some music. Keats states that heard melodies are sweet and the melodies in the urn could not be heard whereas one could imagine the song.  Thus the songs of the piper will remain sweeter in fantasy or imagination and that music is not for the physical ear whereas for the spiritual ear. He then describes about a young man who is playing a song by sitting under a tree. As the urn is immortal the young man will sing forever under the tree which will be full with leaves forever. There is a bold lover who could not kiss his ladylove though he is near her as the picture standstill. The poet asks him not to worry about it as his ladylove will always be beautiful and he will love her forever.  Through these lines Keats tries to imply that the imagined world on the vase is superior to the real world of experience.

Keats feel jealous about the urn as it keeps everything immortal. He says that the tree in the picture remains happy as it does not shed its leaves and also enjoys the spring season forever. The pipers in the picture also are happy as they sing new songs ever. Keats imagines that the lovers are happier as they will love and enjoy forever. Their love is above all the human passion. Human love leaves one with passion or with sorrow.

The other part of the urn with different scenery is presented to the readers by Keats.  He sports a scene on the urn where a group of people coming for sacrifice. He sees a place to sacrifice a heifer which is dressed with garlands by a mysterious priest. The little town by the river side or by the sea shore is built among the peaceful surrounding. As all the people of the town have gone for the sacrifice on a pious day, the town is empty without people. Thus the little town will always be empty and the streets will be silent forever.

Keats address the urn directly as a symbol of Athenian art, beautiful in shape, carved on the embroidered space with the images of men and women. With the beautiful pictures the silent urn confuses and teases humans about eternity. The poet calls the urn as ‘cold pastoral’ to mean either its marble texture or as it remains still in time. The mortals get aged whereas the urn will remain the same amidst the problems of humans as a friend to them. The urn advises humans about what they need to know on earth. The message is “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” that is beauty and truth are one and the same. It in turn consoles humans.