Ode on a graecian urn-by john keats?

Question

I have to write an easy about how john keats applied aristotle's Poetics. But i dont understand this poem.has anyone read or anylized this poem?

"Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats

I
Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring’d 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?
II
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal -- yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!
III
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
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,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.
IV
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead’st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e’er return.
V
O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
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.

I meant that i need to write an essay..not n easy.sorry

Answer 1

I actually really love this poem! Check out these sites:
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/urn.html
http://www.planetpapers.com/Assets/2793.php
http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-odegrecianurn/

Answer 2

Aristotle begins the poetics by defining poetry, as well as music, as "modes of imitation." An ode, itself, is a dedication of language to another topic. However, this poem is not only an ode, it is also an ekphrasis, and therefore all of the description of the first four stanzas exist not just to imitate, but to expound upon the possibilities and unseen motives of the urn's imagery.

In both his discussion of Rhetoric, as well as The Poetics, Aristotle constantly draws upon dichotomies and dialectics. While this may seem oversimplified, as well as very non-poetic, let me remind you that a dialectic has not two, but three parts: thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.

Examine the poem. The first two stanzas are uplifting;, they admire the urn for its eternal state and "unheard melody," but in the third, it begins to reverse this ideology as an entrapment, a torment of being frozen in time. The fourth suggests the ineffectual actions of humanity to embrace life as it happens, instead turning to ritual and religion to give their thanks.

The fifth is the b*&#$ of the bunch, and also, your synthesis of two distinct perspectives. I can't decode it entirely, but the chiasmus that empowers the final lines seems to me a reminder that, while your brain has come and gone so far pondering the imagery of the urn, you must also remember that you are staring at a piece of clay, and often, the most precious parts of existence are those that exist within one's own mind, which is the only medium I can think of for connecting terms as broad as beauty and truth. Ending with a chiasmus is the ultimate reflection of the dialectic, where two structures are reversed to produce a third, collective statement.

Good luck, and if you come to any further conclusions, I'd like to read them.

Answer 3

I've been waiting and waiting for someone to ask this question for ages. I keep a lot of my work on the study of civilisation in a book case high to the ceiling, all a bit jumbled up now but it's all there. Not sure what to do with it, so many years work. I like your line about no one to tell. God knows, I tried. Very demoralising. The rebuilding of a broken civilisation out of the ashes has been a long hoped for destiny. The sharing of information and analysis can only be productive and helpful. All you have to do is ask! I've been waiting.

Answer 4

First and foremost you must understand that Keats wrote in an "English Horatian Ode" style, meaning that his stanzas had consistent structure and were about reflection on a personal level. Unlike Pindaric odes comprised of a strophe, anitstrophe and epode, Horatian odes carried their own pace to an ultimate reflection.
Additionally, if you'll note the last two lines of the poem, you'll see that "truth is beauty.." is in quotes, indicating that it is possible that the "urn" is speaking at this point of the poem. There is scholarly debate on this nuance, but one thing is for sure: these two lines are some of the most famous (or infamous) lines in English literature (T.S. Elliot said they were a blight on an otherwise beautiful poem).

The poem's "meaning": The first stanza speaks of the "still unravish’d bride of quietness". What Keats is saying is that the urn is married to quietness, that the two are forever inseperable, yet quietness has never known the peace of the urn. It is a "foster-child of silence and slow time" in that it was not born of silence, but has become an heir to silence and because of its unwilting beauty, a child of "slow-time"...time unknown to the living. The rest of the stanza and the next is dedicated to describing the intricate scenes that are found painted on the urn and glazed to its surface to become "one" with the urn...an intricate part of it. Additionally, he speaks of how, unlike the real world, all its illustrated denizens will be forever young and never have to fear the ravages of time. However, it also means that the lovers depicted on the urn will never know consumation of their desire (hinting that immortality is a two-edged sword). He ponders about the village depicted on the urn and wonders where its citizens have gone and if they will ever return. When he says, "Oh Attic shape" he's refering to "Attica" in greece, the supposed birthplace of the urn and thus the "shape" as determined not by choice but by accident of birth. This too hints at how fickle life can be in determining one's "place" in the grand scheme of things by an accident of birth. He goes on to associate it in its humble clay with the greater statues known of the period that were made of marble, where men and women were perfected to an almost impossible degree of beauty, covered with "forest branches and trodden weed". He says that the urn "dost tease us out of thought, as doth eternity", meaning that looking at the urn reminds him, just as eternity teases him out of thought of perfection..."Cold Pastoral!" Meaning that things that live forever in perfection lack the warmth of the living, no matter how beautiful they may appear. He then says that the urn will remain the same long after Keat's generation fades and will serve as a friend to future generations, to which the urn will say, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty"...meaning that the urn possesses beauty because it holds an underlying truth and that it is "that" truth that is the source of the beauty... the fact it is immortal makes it appear more precious, but because life is transient, it in fact holds a beauty that is transendent, because it will fade in time regardless of how well it is treated or preserved. It also echos the logic of the day, circular but similar to "I think, therefore I am". To say that this is all you need to know on earth, and all you need to know, implies that we only truly need to know that life is transient, and if we really understand that, everything else becomes simple and clear.

Aristotle's poetics dealt mainly with tragedy, an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the poem using pity and fear to communicate the emotion. Keats used this device literally in this poem as he speaks directly of the "artistic ornamentation" on the urn and with which the urn is identified. The tragedy is the immortality of life and love that is unfulfilled, while the humans who observe and praise the urn have fulfillment without immortality.

and that...as they say, is "all ye need to know"

Answer 5

spare me all the answerers from "above." there are lots of sites to research this poem without getting into keats' bowel movements.

google Keats and Aristotle's poetics.

Answer 6

For the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/avSoU

This is MY personal analysis of the whole poem, read it carefully and derive more meanings. ((( ** I want 30 points for it. ))) ____________________________ It is an "Ode" (sad hymn) on a Grecian urn. In those urns they used to put the ash of hero's dead burned bodies. What JK means is that the greatness of the Grecian glorious passed has died. In his urn, the ash is of the dead body of a great civilization. (( Ode On A Grecian Urn by John Keats)) ....Analysis.... Stanza # 1: ((Arcady (Arcadia) was were all began. The more ancient temple of Europe was found in Arcadia, it was dedicated to Zeus Lycaon (Wolf - Zeus). The most ancient city of Europe and maybe the world is up on the Arcadian mountains, and it's called Lycosura. (Wolf's tail). JK refers to a person who searches the reality through that ash and legend. "Foster child", means that the whole humanity maintains an ancestry from that glorious past. "Silence" is that in those worlds there is only shadows of old spirits. (deities and mortals). The questions refer to the so intense bonds between humans and the rest of the forces around them, a world so strong that was a had thing to overpass it.)) Stanze # 2,3 (( Melodies heard by the soul. Fair youth beneath the trees.. He refers to druids, dryads, men and women that lived in the woods (Δρυς = oak trees). Noble minds, philosophers of a very old time, and beautiful nymphs, there started to exist, and then were dispersed throughout the whole Europe. JK also refers to goddess Artemis (Diane), the protector of woods, also wild life, an eternal virgin since no human or God was equal to her in valor and virtue. She lived in those oak woods, running her goddess ways, through, being blissful to nature and lethal to intruders. Bold Lover is the handsomest man Adonis, a male that all nymphs, Goddesses, mortal women loved, adored. He was in love with Artemis and Persephone (the latter the Goddess of Hades, the Under World) Both loved him, both killed him, since they could not be with him for different reasons. (Artemis to maintain her role of the untamed Goddess, Persephone was already married to Pluton, Zeus brother and god of Hades. So Adonis was immortalized by Gods to live with Persephone in Hades for 6 months(fall, winter), and Artemis on earth (spring, summer). )) Stanza 4: ((Here spirits, maybe just images the poet sees visit the green altar (I guess, green from the festoons, a land without humans grows. Empty silent towns, the old civilization died. "Not a soul tro tell".)) Stanza 5 (( Attic shape (Αττική) Attica is the land around Athens. Athens was the greatest most glorious city of ancient Greece. Statues can still be found excavating, digging the soil of Attica. (marble men...) . Cold Pastoral. JK refers to Pan. Pan is an ancient God who lived on the mountain of Pentelicon, (from which the best white marble was produced) Pan was a dancing God with his flute, happy, playing his music, for the maidens, the Nymphs and the Dryads. The spirit that passes and sees all these things, becomes a friend to man, to whom he will say that .. (The last two lines) Beauty is truth, truth is beauty.. All we need to know.

Answer 7

If you don't understand that poem, you're going to be even more screwed with Aristotle's poetics.