Ode on a Grecian Urn

“Ode on a Grecian Urn,” written in 1819 by John Keats and published anonymously in Annals of the Fine Arts, is one of the “Great Odes of 1819.” The other odes in the sequence include “Ode on Innocence,” “Ode on Melancholy,” “Ode to a Nightingale,” and “Ode to Psyche.” Two articles focusing on the classics written by English artist and writer Benjamin Hayden inspired the poem. The poem consists of five stanzas of ten lines each, in which Keats engages in ekphrasis, representing a piece of art in poetry. Here, the speaker addresses a Grecian urn, speaking to it directly while describing the images on it. The urn bears two scenes: A lover pursuing his beloved and villagers gathering to perform a sacrifice. The poet contemplates what the urn says to future generations and surmises that what the urn communicates is “‘Beauty is truth, truth is beauty’—that is all” (Line 49) and “Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know” (Line 50). Although it was not well received at its original publication, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is now considered one of the greatest odes in English literature.

Poet Biography

John Keats was born on October 31, 1795, though some records state his date of birth as October 29. Born at Moorgate in London, England, Keats was the eldest of four children. His parents aspired to send their children to the prestigious schools of Eton and Harrow but could not afford the fees, so young Keats boarded at John Clarke’s in Enfield, where Keats developed an interest in the classics and history. This early interest in these fields would influence the rest of his life.

After the death of his parents, Keats and his remaining siblings lived under the care of his grandmother, who appointed Richard Abbey and John Sandell as the children’s guardians. At the age of 14, Keats left John Clarke to serve in an apprenticeship as a surgeon and an apothecary. However, Keats’s passion was not the medical field because it consumed too much of his writing time, and even though he registered as a medical student in 1815 and receiving his apothecary’s license in 1816, he eventually informed his guardian that he would not pursue medicine and intended to live as a poet.

Money troubles and depression plagued Keats for most of his life, one often influencing the other. Keats struggled to live debt-free and independently. However, in 1816, The Examiner published Keats’s sonnet “O, Solitude,” and Leigh Hunt published Keats’s first volume of verse, Poems. The volume proved a critical failure, but Keats persevered, experimenting with verse forms. Eventually, publisher Taylor and Hessey would publish Keats’s work, as well as the works of poets like Coleridge, Hazlitt, Clare, Hogg, Carlyle, and Lamb.

In 1818, Keats embarked on a walking tour of Scotland, Ireland, and the Lake District (a mountainous region in North West England). After returning home, Keats nursed his brother, Tom, who suffered from tuberculosis, which some biographers refer to as Keats’s “family disease.” After Tom’s death, Keats moved to Wentworth Place, where he composed five of his six great odes and continued to live lavishly despite his money troubles.

By 1820, Keats exhibited signs of a serious tuberculosis infection. Keats was living in Rome with his close friend, Joseph Severn, and after suffering two major lung hemorrhages, he recognized his death was imminent. He attempted suicide multiple times by overdosing on opium, but Severn stopped him each time. Keats died February 23, 1821. He is considered a second-generation Romantic, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley; he is also considered an inspiration for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His poetry is noted for its heavy sensuality and extreme emotion founded in natural imagery.

Poem Text

Keats, John. “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” 1819. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

At the poem’s beginning, the speaker addresses an ancient Grecian urn as they stand before it. The urn bears illustrations of life, frozen in time. The speaker refers to the urn as the “still unravish’d bride of quietness” (Line 1) and “the foster-child of silence and slow time” (Line 2). As the speaker begins to examine the urn, they wonder about the legends “of deities or mortals, or both” (Line 6) preserved on the urn, questioning the “Sylvan historian” (Line 3) itself about the men, maidens, gods and struggles immortalized on its exterior.

In the second stanza, the speaker focuses on the urn’s second image, which is a young man playing a pipe as he lies with his lover beneath some trees. The speaker states that the piper’s “heard melodies are sweet” (Line 11), but “those unheard / Are sweeter” (Lines 11-12), implying that unheard melodies are sweeter because time does not affect or change them. The speaker notes the young man’s loss— “Bold Lover, never, never, canst thou kiss” (Line 17)—as the young man, frozen in time on the urn, will never kiss his lover. However, the speaker acknowledges that the young man shouldn’t grieve, since the young man and his lover’s youth and beauty will never succumb to aging and time. In the third stanza, the speaker fixates on the trees and plant life surrounding the lovers. He feels happy, contented by the fact that the trees will never lose their leaves, and the piper and his lover will never experience loss or hurt.

In the fourth stanza, the speaker fixates on the image of a group of villagers, led by a “mysterious priest” (Line 41). The priest leads a heifer “lowing at the skies” (Line 42) to sacrificial slaughter. The speaker imagines the village and its silence, its empty dwellings devoid of their occupants, its streets “for evermore / Will silent be” (Lines 47-48) frozen in time on the urn. In the fifth and final stanza, the speaker compares the urn’s stillness and silence to that of eternity, stating that the urn “dost tease us out of thought / as doth eternity” (Lines 44-45). The speaker then shifts his thoughts to his own generation, which will someday pass. However, the poem concludes with the speaker believing that the urn will outlast many future generations, imparting the knowledge that “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” (Line 49) to those to come