The Ode on a Grecian Urn (Summary)

 

The Ode on a Grecian Urn was composed in the spring of 1819 and published in 1820. It is one of the greatest odes of Keats and shows his poetic genius at its maturity. It has an organic structure. The first stanza gives the introduction, the second, third and fourth stanzas the main subject, and the fifth the conclusion.

The poet sees a Grecian urn which has not been affected by the attack of time and has been lying silently on the lap of time. The urn gives the record of a past age more graphically than poetry. Its borders are encircled with garlands of leaves. The poet asks whether the figures depicted on the urn are of gods or men or both, whether they are from Tempe or Arcadia, who the maidens trying to escape the pursuit of mad lovers and the musicians playing on pipes and timbrels are.

The music that is listened to by the spirit is sweeter than the music heard by physical or "sensual" ears. The youth represented on the urn as playing on the pipe will always go on playing under the tree which will never shed their leaves. And the lover who is hotly pursuing the girl will never succeed in catching and kissing her. But he need not be sad, because he will never cease to love her and his beloved will always be lovely.

The trees engraved on the urn will ever remain in their spring freshness and the musician will always continue to pipe new songs without being tired. The warmth of the young man's love will never cool down.

The poet sees a sacrificial procession depicted on the um. There is a crowd of people; a priest is leading á heifer decorated with garlands to the sacrificial altar. The crowd might have come out of some town situated by a river, or on the seashore or on a mountain. The town must have been empty at the time, and it must ever remain empty.

The urn is a genuine specimen of Greek art sculpturing a number of men and maidens, branches and weeds. It seduces us from the ordinary life of thought into the extraordinary life of the imagination. It will continue to exist, even when the present generation will die out, and in the midst of sufferings as yet unknown to us, it will teach us the lesson that beauty and truth are identical the only lesson we ought to know. 

In this poem, Keats presents the enchanting, perfect and immortal world of the urn, as he discusses the destructive nature of the real world and its desires, which cannot be quenched.