There is a pattern of interwoven paradoxes which persist throughout the Ode, contributing to its unity of thought and the development of its main theme (that the Urn has managed to achieve immortality). The first stanza sets the pattern of paradoxes that runs throughout the poem. Firstly in its structure, it is split into two sections - the first four lines are a series of apostrophes, personifying the urn, and addressing it in its special association to silence and time, and the last six are a series of questions.
In the opening lines Keats seems completely rapt in an imaginative contemplation of this beautiful urn. He describes it as a bride, a foster-child, a historian. All these personifications are links of the actions related to those roles which Keats assigns to the urn. Keats crafts iambic pentameter to imitate his meaning in the first two lines of the stanza. The overall meter is iambic pentameter, but subtle variations in it produce a different emotional effect for the reader. Keats’s first line ends with two unstressed or weak syllables instead of the iamb (the “etness” of “quietness”), with the effect of thinning, hushing, or quieting sound. At the end of the next line, the poet replaces the iamb with two stressed or strong syllables (a spondee), resulting in the heavier, slower impact of “slow time.” The Urn has been adopted by Silence and Slow Time. This metaphor is intended to convey the quietness and the undiminished glory of the Urn over the centuries. The alliteration creates a sense of quiet, reinforcing the meaning of the line.
The final two lines of the 1st stanza highlight the paradoxical sense that persists through the whole poem. The Urn which earlier had been associated with silence, stillness, quietness, and virginity, is now associated with sound, passion, and activity. This has been portrayed in the music of the "pipes and timbrel" and in the "mad pursuit" between the maiden struggling to escape her lovers’ clutches. Such a vivid picture of men or gods chasing their maidens in a state of wild passion largely contrasts with the "unravish'd bride" image of the early lines.
In the second stanza, the poet introduces his main subject - the supremacy of art to life. The unheard melodies are sweeter than those actually played in our world. They are "not to the sensual ear" but "to the spirit". The stillness of the Urn appears to hold a superior life, mainly because the youth's song is endless. The first four lines contrast the ideal (in art, love, and nature) and the real. In contrast the last six lines contrast the drawback of frozen time with the use of negative phrasing: "canst not leave," "nor ever can," "never, never canst". Keats says not to grieve and then lists the advantages of frozen time; however he continues to use negative phrasing even in these lines: "do not grieve," "cannot fade," and ""hast not thy bliss."
Stanza three is an expression of pure joy on pondering the urn's scenes. This joy translates to the reader as the word happy is repeated several times. The crescendo ends when he comes to the realisation that the lovers shown on the urn are in fact "far above…all breathing human passion" which cannot be so satisfying or so lasting, as he invokes love itself. The imagination is grounded by the word "human", and his link with these figures is severed as he concentrates on the limitations of human love. The poet continues to depict the happiness of the Urn's world where spring is permanent, where the piper's melodies are "ever new", and where love is “Forever warm”. The objects on the urn are brought to life through the poet’s language, but ultimately we must identify with the art through the imagination.
The fourth section shows a change in form, as the stanza consists entirely of a set of queries about the figures and their actions. But that is not the only change in form; here Keats elaborates the scene of the picture on the urn, relating it to an entire world that lies somewhere past what is portrayed. There is a procession; a priest is leading a cow to some ritual sacrifice. The poet imagines that the little town from whence the people in the procession came is empty because all the folk have joined the procession. Thus, the imagination goes beyond what the work of art represents and sees what it merely suggests. The poet affirms that the town will always be silent, and that it will remain desolated of its inhabitants who will never be able to get back again to their houses. This Stanza shows the ability of art to stir the imagination, so that the viewer sees more than is portrayed. There is an implicit contrast between the event being “a sacrifice” and the altar being "green”. The use of the word folk indicates a simple rural setting, and by giving three possible locations for the town he is saying that it could be anywhere. The image of the silent, desolate town embodies both pain and joy. It is ironic that not a soul can tell us why the town is empty but the vase can communicates so much to the poet and so to the reader.
In the final stanza the poet reviews the whole urn and recapitulates his perceptions. With this change of viewpoint the values represented by the Urn come into a new perspective. The poet now becomes objective, viewing the Urn as an object without life. The system of paradox which has been developing throughout the whole poem continues: though the Urn is a work of art of "fair attitude", a "silent form", motionless, made "of marble men and maidens", and, by its very function, associated with death, it suggested a world of warmth, colour, music, vitality, and passionate feelings. Looking at the urn, he has been "teased" out of thought. The poet calls the urn a friend, one who brings a message about truth and beauty and their sameness to the many generations since it was created. The urn will continue to bring that message to generations in the future. What the imagination encapsulates as beauty is truth, but one needs empathy of 'negative capability' to understand that this beauty is 'a cold pastoral', which is incomplete despite its perfection, because it cannot change and the people on the urn cannot grow through experience. Therefore in the final stanza the poet is detaching himself from the urn to consider its overall significance in relation to human life and passion. "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" sums up the relationships described throughout the poem.
In the poem “Ode On a Grecian Urn”, the poet John Keats uses language and the object of his poem to link abstract actions and concepts to physical, real, concrete things, in many different ways. Using iambic pentameter, and a unique rhyme scheme, Keats' sets up a harmonious, delightfully fluid poem which well serves the purpose he gives it. The “Ode on a Grecian Urn” squarely confronts the truth that art is not "natural," like leaves on a tree, but artificial.
(1462 words)
Bibliography
Romantic Writings: An Anthology (1998) Oxford University Press
Abrahams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms (1998) Thomas Learning
Stephen Bygrave (ed.), Romantic Writings (1996) Open University