'Ode on a Grecian urn' is one of the most remarkable poems by the great romantic poet, John Keats. The poem reveals Keats great interest in Hellenic life and art. In it the poet has also given expression to his philosophy of art.Audio Books
The poem is said to have been inspired by the Elgin Marbles, a part of the sculpture of the temple of Athena in Greece which was brought to England and later sold to the British Museum. Keats was however not inspired by one particular urn but by many of these sculptures. The poet combines all these into one work of supreme beauty. In the poem the urn becomes a symbol of art and permanence. He compares art with real life and concluded Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.
In the first stanza Keats stresses the superiority of art. Through a series of rhetorical questions he brings to life the engravings on the urn. These pictures are taken up in the subsequent stanzas, adding details which make them immortal.
The wild ecstasy of the musicians at the end of the first stanza inspires the poet to say that heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter. In his imagination Keats listens to the sweeter unheard melodies which do not end and which are ever fresh and eternal.
Keats then addresses a young lover pictured on the urn. The lover is about to kiss his beloved. The artist has arrested his further movement and so the lover does not even fulfill his desire. The poet however consoles the lover. Fulfillment takes away the expectation and thrill. The lover will ever love and his beloved with always be young and beautiful.
Here we have Keats philosophy of art. Art is superior to life because it is not subject to growth and decay. Trees on the urn never shed leaves, they are always in full bloom for the artist had pictured them in spring. The piper never gets tired. For each generation the piper sings fresh songs. His music passes from the real to the eternal. It becomes the everlasting music of the soul which one listens with the inner ear.
There are other figures carved on the urn, all frozen in time. There is a crowd of worshipers on its way to a sacrifice, there is a mysterious priest leading a fat sleek garlanded heifer to the leaf-decked alter. Looking on the scene Keats lets his imagination fly beyond the visible into the little town which has been evacuated. The streets are deserted and silent for all the people have gone for the sacrifice. They will never return and the streets of the town will always be desolate.Audio Books
The last stanza of the ode contains Keats testament of Beauty. Keats has written that a thing of beauty is a joy for ever'. The beauty of the urn and the joy it gives to the viewer are a joy for ever. Time does not destroy this beauty, it is there for all age to give joy, and it is everlasting. So Keats writes Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty. It is not only the urn's message to man but also the philosophy of Keats on Beauty and Art.