An Analysis of 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' by John Keats

Keats's ode centres upon the narrator's contemplation of a Grecian urn. It starts by presenting the reader with a slowly unfolding situation, with the narrator focusing on the images depicted on the urn. The prevailing mood is one of unperturbed reflection, as evinced in the opening lines' use of the words 'quietness' and 'silence'. The iambic rhythm is apparent in the first line, where the stress is on the words 'still', the syllable 'rav' in 'unravish'd', 'bride', and the syllables 'qui' and 'ness' in 'quietness', creating the impression of a heartbeat. It also becomes clear that there is a coexistence of concepts embodied in the word 'still', which carries two meanings, representing both time and motion, thus creating the impression of a frozen moment - an image which recurs throughout.The narrator's persistent questioning highlights the sudden tensions between reality and imagination. This reflects the ode's subtle irony which is discernible when the reader begins to enqu
ire as to whom these questions are directed. The urn knows what it depicts yet is unable to physically answer the narrator, therefore it is possible the narrator is in fact addressing their own imagination - a notion strengthened through the nature of their questions; particularly those that are broad in scope, such as the final: 'What wild ecstasy?' A line which appears to evoke the limitless properties of imagination.The repetitious use of questions also adds suspense, the reader wishing to progress further to see if they are answered. As well as single words - the repetition of 'What' in lines 5,8,9 and 10 - whole sentence structures are also repeated in the last 3 lines, which all employ caesura (represented with a question mark), indicating that the reader should pause for effect. Suspense is also provided through the impression of escalating volume. The stanza began with a mood of meditative stillness yet finishes with the sounds of 'pipes and timbrels'.The themes of t
he 'real' and the seemingly artistic 'ideal' come to the fore in the second stanza. The narrator examines the urn more closely, focusing on actual figures portrayed on it. In the first four lines, the concept of the real is embodied in the stanza's opening line: 'Heard melodies are sweet'. Yet the narrator appears to favour the ideal: 'but those unheard Are sweeter'. The use of enjambment in this phrase causes the 'Are sweeter,' to appear on the next line, subtly underscoring the narrator's viewpoint. This preference for the ideal is further proclaimed in lines 3 and 4, where the real 'sensual ear' of line 3 is rejected in favour of the 'spirit ditties' of line 4 - the assonance in this distinctive phrase consolidates the importance of the ideal to the narrator.The image of frozen time is inextricably bound up with the notion of the ideal, and it is the advantages and disadvantages of such a state which enthralls the narrator throughout the second and third stanzas. The tree
s which will not shed their leaves leads directly on to the figure of the male lover, who will never kiss his love, because they are frozen in an ideal state. Yet the narrator succeeds to proclaim the advantages of such a state, by asserting that the woman will always 'be fair!' But there is a prevailing mood of disappointment in these descriptions, mainly through the frequent use of negative phrasing: 'do not grieve' in line 8 and 'hast not thy bliss' in line 9, as if the narrator were gradually growing despondent with the ideal. This negativity is encapsulated in the ode's enduring preoccupation with those moments between diametrically opposed extremes, such as pleasure and pain - the lover could be enjoying the pleasure of the kiss yet is pained by the anxiety preceding it - an effect facilitated by the concept of suspended time.The fourth stanza incorporates a feeling of expansion both in space and time. There is a pronounced shift in tone as a different scene is suddenl
y manifest. The narrator envisages a small town now emptied of its inhabitants: 'What little town by river or sea shore'. In mentioning the town, Keats has shifted from focusing on individual figures, as in previous stanzas, to contemplating a community: 'Is emptied of its folk'. Also in contrast to his perceived conception of the ideal being innately static in terms of time, Keats's visualization of a town imbues the proceedings with a sense of history. Yet his previous despondency appears again as he imagines the town's desolate silence in the stanza's last three lines.The last stanza appears to be focusing on the urn's role in reality. A narrative that fleetingly came to life has now returned to stone, portrayed in the alliterative line: 'Of marble men and maidens overwrought,' and the phrases 'Silent form' and 'Cold Pastoral'. The narrator's meditations on the ideal would appear to have yielded the metaphor: 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty', the closing lines conveying th
e overriding impression that a person's life is transitory and subject to change, while the frozen ideal of the urn is timeless.

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