What is the significance of ode on a grecian urn

JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. The Romantics delivered literary CPR to this ancient form and made it their own see "Form and Meter" for more on this. But in Ancient Greece, urns came in many different shapes and sizes. 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 this 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. O Attic shape! Fair attitude! 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.

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem. More by Keats — A link to more poems by Keats, including his other odes. Sketch of an Urn by Keats — A sketch by John Keats of the Sosibios urn, which is thought to have partially inspired the poem.

Other Ekphrastic Poems — A collection of poems that also use an ekphrastic approach. Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art. La Belle Dame sans Merci. Ben Davis May 14, What is the meaning of Ode to a Grecian Urn? What is on the urn in Ode on a Grecian Urn? Why is the urn called a Sylvan historian? Why is the urn called a foster child? What does the term Sylvan mean in the poem Ode on a Grecian Urn?

What does Keats say about truth and beauty? What is the relationship between truth and beauty? Other figures, or possibly the male figures, are playing musical instruments.

The maidens are probably the nymphs of classical mythology. The men or gods are smitten with love and are pursuing them. Keats, who loved classical mythology, had probably read stories of such love games. Under the trees a lover is serenading his beloved. In stanza I, Keats confined himself to suggesting a scene by questions. The second scene is not presented by means of questions but by means of description. We see a youth in a grove playing a musical instrument and hoping, it seems, for a kiss from his beloved.

The scene elicits some thoughts on the function of art from Keats. Art gives a kind of permanence to reality. The youth, the maiden, and the musical instrument are, as it were, caught and held permanently by being pictured on the urn. And so Keats can take pleasure in the thought that the music will play on forever, and although the lover can never receive the desired kiss, the maiden can never grow older nor lose any of her beauty.

In these two stanzas Keats imagines a state of perfect existence which is represented by the lovers pictured on the urn. Art arrests desirable experience at a point before it can become undesirable. This, Keats seems to be telling us, is one of the pleasurable contributions of art to man. The third scene on Keats' urn is a group of people on their way to perform a sacrifice to some god.