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Applied Humanities

Learning to Read Reading Keats By Eric Steineger 1 Module One: Introduction to the Humanities / Page 1.3.2 Reading Keats On this page: 0 of 4 attempted (0%) | 0 of 1 correct (0%) Objective: Better understand the literary-analysis strategies outlined on the previous page by applying them to a poem by John Keats.

Apply Strategies for Analyzing a Poem

Using the strategies just outlined, let’s take a look at “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” one of the most famous odes ever penned. John Keats wrote this poem in 1819.

On this page, you will practice using the strategies for analyzing a poem.

This is a line drawing of a Grecian urn. It is on a tan background and brown ink was used for the drawing. It is signed at the bottom and says: “By John Keats.”

A drawing John Keats rendered of an engraving of the Sosibios Vase.

Louvre Museum

Ode on a Grecian Urn

10/31/2020 HUM-200 - Page 1.3.2 - Reading Keats

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By John Keats

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?

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!

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.

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,

10/31/2020 HUM-200 - Page 1.3.2 - Reading Keats

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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! 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.”

Originally published in Keats: Poems Published in 1820, by John Keats, edited by M. Robertson (Project Gutenberg, 2007), retrieved from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23684/23684-h/23684-h.htm#Page_113.

Response Board After a first read, what is your impression? What stood out to you? What did you not understand?

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Establish Context

Clearly this is not colloquial, 21st-century language. This is gorgeous, elevated language from some time ago. Quick research will show Keats to be a Romantic poet. The Romantics believed anyone could be a poet, regardless of background. They believed in the power of nature and intense feeling, and, contrary to popular belief, did not see the world through rose-colored glasses. The Romantics were powerful poets who sought the limits of human experience.

This is also an ekphrastic poem, or a poem based on another work of art. Here, Keats is describing various scenes on a colorfully painted urn—not an urn for storing ashes but rather a hand-painted pitcher for pouring wine.

Multiple-Choice Question

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10/31/2020 HUM-200 - Page 1.3.2 - Reading Keats

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Which of the following characterized the Romantic poets?

They were popular in the early 18th century, at a time when romance ruled the art scene. They tended to focus on the natural world and our emotional response to it. They typically wrote about love, courtship, and marriage. They wrote in a variety of Romance languages, which makes their works difficult to translate.

Identify Key Aspects

This poem is different from most literary artifacts because it lacks characters and a clear narrative. Here, the narrator is unnamed and is addressing an inanimate object (an urn). Our narrator addresses not only the urn, but also several scenes painted on it, each with different characters and landscapes. The urn is our “sylvan historian.”

In this poem, there are five stanzas with ten lines apiece; the syntax is slightly disjointed. Could this be meant to stress certain lines or words within lines?

Unlike stories that progress in a linear fashion, building toward one inevitable conflict, this poem is largely descriptive. One can imagine Keats (or whoever the narrator is) rotating the urn to examine these figures frozen in time. Let’s look at the object’s ability to capture beauty:

Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme: ... 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:

Keats once said, “I want a word brighter than bright.” What does that tell us about the sufficiency of language to express meaning?

This is a poem of questions (“Who are these coming to the sacrifice?” “What men or gods are these?”) and declarative moments (“And, little town, thy streets for evermore / Will silent be; and not a soul to tell / Why thou art desolate, can e’er return.”). Notice the poetic language throughout, including details like the inverted placement of drest

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(“dressed”) in these lines: “To what green altar, O mysterious priest, / Leads’t thou that heifer lowing at the skies, / And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?” Keats is personifying these figures on the urn and posing real questions, imagining their concerns in order to give us, the readers, insight into the human condition and questions of immortality.

One of the scenes depicts a young couple about to kiss; this leads Keats to ruminate on how mortals will experience heartbreak and grow old and die, while the couple on the urn remains in a state of eternal love:

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!

Even if some of the scenes on the urn feel incomplete, Keats describes these situations as being preferable to our impermanent lives. At least the wonder of the lovers remains suspended in time, the “Cold Pastoral” full of possibility.

POLL QUESTION

When did you pick up on the idea of the narrator holding an urn and turning it to see different scenes?

Form an Impression

Stanza 1 provides context. Stanzas 2–4 describe different scenes painted on the urn. And stanza 5 contains these immortal lines:

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,

I picked it up on the first read.

I realized it on a subsequent reading.

I didn’t notice it until it was explained in this section.

Even though it’s been explained, I still don’t get that from the poem itself.

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“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

Is Keats maybe describing art and beauty’s ability to transcend time? Humankind’s inability to do the same? In Keats’s view, we should be selective with time and pinpoint transcendental moments of beauty or even acute pain. That is what lasts.

Response Board What can you draw on from your own life experiences to support Keats’s idea that beauty is truth and truth is beauty?

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