Ode on a Grecian Urn

Question 1

key themes

Answer 1

• inncoence
• transience
• art/culture
• wisdom + knowledge
• sex

Question 2

innocence

Answer 2

• “Urn” = an innocent world, unaffected by suffering and hardship – initial confusion j over the urns purpose (rhetorical questions)
• Nature is unharmed in this world.
• By the end of the poem, innocence is turned to a form of cold distance and alienation.
• Sexual desire is a form of innocence in the poem.
• Speaker turns his back on the innocent world in the final stanza.
• Semantic field of sensual imagery (s2): “sweet, sweeter, soft, sensual, endeared, youth, kiss, bliss, love, fair”.
• Anadiplosis (“happy, happy”) and exclamative – emphasis of the joy of innocence
• Open “o” sound – peaceful and calm
• Semantic field of calm (“peaceful, silken, silent”)

Question 3

transcience

Answer 3

• World is permanently frozen in a single moment – contrasts timeless world of the urn (upside-down hourglass is human life) – “Forster-child of silence and slow time”: being taken on by time and silence.
• Repetition: temporal vs eternal stasis (“forever”)
• Final lines suggest humans cling to what momentary beauty they can find.
• Speaker came to a more charitable view of transcendent by the end of the poem.
• Interaction of humans ruins nature (golden ratio)
• Morality is painful (“burning forehead, and a parching tongue”) – watched his family die.

Question 4

art/culture

Answer 4

• Keats suggests that the most powerful truth is found only in art – believing truth was conveyed through emotions and experiences not logic or arguments – urn waiting for sensitive souls to listen with a “spiritual ear”.
• Apostrophised the urn: concept of the urn being alive suggests an atmosphere of envy and awe – final line is the urn speaking.

Question 5

wisdom + knowledge

Answer 5

• Uses the urn as a source of wisdom – feeling down on life and love and needs good advice.
• Unclear what help the urn can assist – the speaker’s world is different to the urn’s.
• End of the poem says “Beaty is truth, truth beauty” anadiplosis (truth is a spiritual experience + can change any moment) - Amy Lowell claimed Keats wasn’t suitable to write about the ultimate truth.
• Keats wants the reader to approach the poem as the speaker approaches the urn.

Question 6

sex

Answer 6

• Difficult to determine the difference between sex and love - Keats was a realist on terms of love (knew that love will vary)
• Speaker proposes ideal solution to transience of erotic feelings – we have to stop time right before the act of sex (remain in joyful anticipation) – comes to terms with the idea that prolonged sexual excitement would be more painful than pleasurable.

Question 7

form

Answer 7

Stanza 1: taking to urn + wandering at its beauty.
Stanza 2: reflecting on the sweetness of imagines music, eternal love.
Stanza 3: happiness of the eternal tree
Stanza 4: reflects on the empty town, peace = lack of purpose
Stanza 5: reflects on beauty and time.
* 5 x 10-line stanzas, iambic pentameter
* 2-part rhyme scheme in every stanza, last 3 lines vary
* No closed couplets: Beaty and nature become frozen in time + endless.

Question 8

context - inspiration

Answer 8

• Articles by English writer + artist, Benjamin Hayden, famous for grand historical works of art – Keats grew fond of the representation of Greek virtues in classical Greek art
• Visited British Mesusm + used Elgin Marbled as inspiration for the scenes

Question 9

context - personal

Answer 9

• Year before: Keats moved house to etnworth Place with friend Charles Borwn until 1820 (advised to move to warmer climate due to illness) – time there was most productive +
• Fanny lived next door (they met there in November 1818) – relationship a secret a he wasn’t finaically stable enough for her mother – “never canst thou kiss” reflects pain of Fanny + Keats having to keep their engagement a secret + unbeknownst to them they’d never marry
• Tom died of TB year before + Keats nursed him through his final months due to medical experience - them of time reflect never ending suffering that his brother suffered and he had to watch without being of significant help
• “a burning forehead, and a arching tongue”: reflects the pain coming with TB (Keats knew jed contracted it by this point) or how he has so much to say but not enough time.
• “beatty is truth, truth is beauty”: conveying the profound ideas + messages which he has admired in other writers work (e.g. Wordsworth) – linking back to the hint so much to say or his desperation to show his worth as a writer

Question 10

context - other