Ode on a Grecian Urn Essay

.." As the youth is in a constant state of seeking, eternally about to experience the joy of a first kiss.

Relatable Human Emotion

Though Keats means for the symbols to be expressed as unknown through the expression of curiosity about who these individuals might be: "What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape/

Of deities or mortals, or of both,/

In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?/

What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? / What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?

What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?" This device makes the images even more approachable, as the individual viewer can then imagine the depictions as anyone or anything, even when the material is ancient. The modern viewer might not know what god is depicted in the eternal art but he or she can apply any modern character, perhaps even an individual he or she knows. It is this universal and approachable theme that often drives the buying of a gift for a certain individual. When a person is walking through a shop or gallery and sees something that just reminds them of a loved one. They might not even know why, but they nonetheless feel compelled to obtain the item for that person. This is a universal and approachable situation depicted by the initial aspects of mystery associated with the characters and scenes described by Keats as populating the Urn. Another point of the text that makes it more approachable is again the idea that any individual can remember the moment of bliss before an expected event, such as an embrace or a first kiss, "More happy love! more happy, happy love!/

For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,/

For ever panting, and for ever young; All breathing human passion far above,/

That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd, / burning forehead, and a parching tongue." The characters provide the viewer with a depiction of a universal feeling of excitement, associated with passion. We all have had moments where passion envelopes us and makes us almost oblivious to the rest of the world, again the characters have this eternally while individuals need to be reminded of it, through art in this case. Finally the work describes in the final lines a universal and approachable human emotion, or epiphany that the beauty of the earth and the simple expressions of it are those that carry the greatest truth, in short a flowery way to say, stop and smell the roses."Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st, 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty, -- that is all/

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

Conclusion

Ode on a Grecian Urn, describes an individual interpretation of an historical piece of art, which displays a set of universal themes. The poem demonstrates at least three themes regarding art and the art of man and how it can and should to some degree transcends time and place through symbolism and imagery. The work is reflective of the piece itself, its images and the emotion that can easily be elicited within the viewer of any piece of art. In other words Keats expresses that art should express timeliness, eternal emotion and finally approachable emotion. The poem reflects the idea that within art, at least art that is capable of eliciting emotion there are three specific themes regarding the human experience of art; first that art can freeze time, second that art reflects eternal human emotion and lastly that both these elements can work together to bring the viewer to a place of emotion that is relatable. Hence the Urn and the ode describing it represent universal emotional themes that are forever approachable by the viewer.

Colvin 353)

Works Cited

Blackstone, Bernard. The Consecrated Urn: An Interpretation of Keats in Terms of Growth and Form. London: Longmans Green, 1959.

Colvin, Sidney. John Keats: His Life and Poetry, His Friends, Critics and after-Fame. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1917.

Hofmann, Klaus. "Keats's Ode to a Grecian Urn." Studies….....