Ode on a Grecian Urn

‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ is among other literary creation of john Keats. In his very limited life span he wrote quite a few verses, although most of his verses have not received much appreciation from literary world. Nevertheless, Ode on a Grecian Urn is a poem where the author depicted the beauty of art and elaborated its true value in details.

In the poem the poet visualized the sketches on the ‘gracious urn’ from the poetic perspective. The beauty of true literary creation reflected in his work quite subtly throughout the poem. Based on such a common element like urn, John Keats delivered a fantastic literary creation that forces its readers to think of the true magnitude of art.

The poem itself is a representative of an immortal aspect of art. The poet tried to depict the fact from the get-go that unlike real world where everyone and everything would eventually decay and come to an end, riding on the wheel of time, the literary creation or art is immortal and does not have an end.

The poem begins with a fine metaphor, where the poet compares the art that sketched on the urn, with a quiet bride and a silent child. Through his description he conveyed the fact that art does not demolish like the object of factually world. It remains unchanged forever and thus, he then narrates the art on the urn a better storyteller than a historian. In the second stanza the poet described an art that is visualized in the said urn as a beauty of life. This time, it is a young lover who is lying next to his lover under a tree. The proficiency of his imagination as well as unique ability to put his thoughts in writing explicitly proves Keats’s ingenuity. The poem is quite intelligible and revolving on a common phenomenon, the poet drew a romantic scene through the power of his pen that takes us to a dreamy world.

The young lover is playing a pipe and although it can’t be heard but John Keats believed that nothing can be as melodious as the sound of this pipe. He also consoled that young lover as he could not kiss his lover but the poet tells him in consolation not to worry because his lover will remain as beautiful as now, for forever. He knows that art never dies and it remains unchanged forever and from that believes he entreated the young lover not to grief for any reason.

The author then describes the next picture in the urn, which is about a village where a sacrifice seems to be taking place and all the people of the village gather for that. As art remains unchanged forever, the poet said that the villagers shall never return to their home as they all came to witness the sacrifice of an animal and will remain there forever.

The next picture is about the beautiful environment where green is prevailing all around and peace is a regular companion of the inhabitants. Seeing the beauty all around the poet delineated about the settlement of spring forever, because it is during spring the plants bloom and it looks green all around.

The poet then disclosed the ultimate truth of life; that is death, which is a common aspect for all living begins but for art it is a matter of unknown. Therefore, the poet believes even after his own death this beautiful piece of art on the urn will remain the same to tell the same story to the next generation as well. It in the last stanza the poet said ‘beauty is truth, truth beauty’ and this phrase bears the actual context of the poem.

By saying this line John Keats meant, that art is beauty and the beauty shall remain true forever and the rest is irrelevant. Likewise, all other matters and materialistic pleasure of our life barely matters in front of the real magnitude of art. End of the day, we can only cherish the beauty that is hidden in the creation of art and that shall remain with us forever, leaving everything else apart.