Ode on a Grecian Urn

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1820

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“Ode on a Grecian Urn” consists of five ten-lined stanzas that present, describe, and depict a scene. The ten lines of each stanza are written in iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter assigns ten syllables to each line. The first syllable is unaccented; the second is accented; the third is unaccented, and the pattern continues. The most easily recognized lines of iambic pentameter appear in the poem’s first two lines, with the bolded words representing the accented syllables:

“Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness, / Thou foster-child of silence and slow time” (Lines 1-2).

“Iambic” refers to a pair of syllables, one unaccented and the other accented. “Thou still” (Line 1) is an iamb, as is “slow time” (Line 1). “Bride of” (Line 1) and “foster” (Line 2) are not iambs, because they consist of an accented syllable followed by an unaccented one. “Pentameter” refers to lines consisting of five iambs, and “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is considered iambic pentameter because each line has five iambs. Despite being a common meter, the iambic pentameter in the poem is hardly noticeable due to Keats’s artful language. An example is the line “Ah, happy, happy boughs! That cannot shed!” (Line 21). The word “happy” is an easily understood word, and the repetition of it and combination with the word “boughs” adds to the poem’s pastoral tone.

Like Keats’s other Odes in the series, the five stanzas of “Ode on a Grecian Urn” begin with an ABAB rhyme scheme that ends with a Miltonic sestet, where the first and fifth stanzas follow CDEDCE, the second stanza is CDECED, and the third and fourth stanzas follow CDECDE. This rhyme scheme works to link the poem structurally to the other odes, while giving the poem a Classical symmetry (as found in the ABAB repetition) that coexists with a Romantic asymmetry of a shifting, though balanced, rhyming structure.

Consonance

Consonance is the repetition of similar sounds, such as consonants, in the same line of poetry. Keats incorporates distinct consonance in the phrase “foster-child of silence and slow-time” (Line 2). The repetition of “s”-sounds pushes the line forward. This continues in the third line, in phrases like “Sylvan historian” and “canst thus express” (Line 3). More distinct consonance occurs in phrases “What men or gods” (Line 8) and “What maidens” (Line 8). The combination of words like “What,” “men,” and “maidens” creates yet another sense of moving forward, of being pushed forward, as these sounds combine in interrogative statements.

Personification

Personification means that a poet gives human attributes to animate or inanimate objects. In “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” the speaker personifies the urn, speaking directly to the art object throughout the poem. He describes the urn as an “unravish’d bride of quietness” (Line 1) and a “foster-child of silence and slow-time” (Line 2). The urn then develops a stoic persona as the speaker describes it as a “Sylvan historian who canst thus express / A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme” (Lines 3-4), and the urn takes on the role of a storyteller. The urn bears the etchings which also contribute to the storytelling. Though the “Bold Lover” (Line 17) can be interpreted as the piper depicted in the etching, other interpretations allow that the “Bold Lover” is the urn, and the urn is a lover of history since it tells history’s stories. At the poem’s conclusion, the urn is again personified as an eternal “friend to man” (Line 48) for generations to come, sharing the philosophy “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” (Line 49) for all who contemplate its etchings.

Anaphora

Anaphora refers to the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. “Ode on a Grecian Urn” frequently utilizes anaphora to create momentum in the poem. The most notable examples are the lines “Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed” (Line 21) and “And, happy melodist, unwearied.” The next best example of anaphora is the line “More happy love! more happy, happy love!” (Line 25). The repetition of the word “happy” combines with the speaker’s usage of exclamatory statements to create emotion and excitement. Another example of anaphora are the lines “For ever warm and still to be enjoy’d” (Line 26) and “For ever panting, and for ever young” (Line 27). The repetition of “for ever” in both lines works to create the sense of immortality that the speaker sees and envies in the urn. The poem’s conclusion also utilizes anaphora to help shift the poem towards its end. The first instance occurs in the line “‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all’” (Line 49). This repetition reiterates what the speaker learns from the urn. In the final line, the repetition of the word “ye” delivers the poem’s finality and message to the reader, since “ye” is a form of “you:” “‘all / ye know on earth, and all ye need to know’” (Lines 49-50). The repetition of the word “all” in both lines emphasizes the urn’s assertion that through history, art, and music, humanity reaches an understanding of itself and the meaning of truth.