Ode To A Grecian Urn Analysis

Ode to a Grecian Urn by John Keats “Ode to a Grecian Urn” by John Keats is a poem written in the romantic period stating this from the imagery of the urn the life cycle of love. The influence of the romantic period is evident in the poem through the reference of love throughout the examination of the urn’s pictures. The reader is brought to understand that love is best frozen in time on the urn than allowed to expire through its natural course of action. Keats, simply uses imagery of the urn to impress on the reader the cycle of love through the restating imagery of love’s birth, peak, and its demise with ironic and references of time. The writer, John Keats, uses the imagery generated from the Grecian urn to explain his own thoughts on love …show more content…
This is the courting phase where time seems to stand still, “Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss” (line 17) and the music that the lover plays to her is not as important as the love that they share in the moment “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter” (line 11). This imagery suggest to the reader that the young couple are in the beginning of love and he sticks a first blow by stating that the two are better off on the urn then in life, “Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave” / “For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair” (line 15 and 20). Through this image, he is stating that although love is fleeting, on the urn they will not age nor will they fall out of …show more content…
The reader is brought to look at the sacrifice that is about to take place, “Who are these coming to sacrifice?” (line 41). As to tell the reader that love will always die, so that one may fall in love but only to sacrifice the same love later. At the same time the reader is given the impression that everyone will have love taken from them by the reference of the emptied town from where the people came to sacrifice the cow, “Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?” (line 47).
The conclusion is summed up with the fifth and final stanza where he returns the reader to the real world, “Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought” (line 54). And reminds the reader that the pictures on the urn are beautiful and true, that only a lived life can experience truth from love. Keats shows the reader that although love may not be lasting it is something that everyone needs to endure. Using the imagery of the poem Keats shows the reader how this generations old urn reflects valuable insight into human nature. That people look into the idea of love differently than the act of