Ode on a Grecian Urn (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Keats
- First Published: 1820
- Type of Work: Ode
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry, Ode
- Subjects: Love or romance, Sex or sexuality, Music or musicians, Art or artists, Religion, Beauty, Rites or ceremonies, Sacrifice
The Poem
It is important to apprehend the dramatic situation in “Ode on a Grecian Urn” both to understand the poem on a literal level and to glean any larger meaning from it. A narrator looks at the pictures that decorate the outside of an urn; between the “leaf-fringed legend[s]” (line 5)—literally, the decorated borders on top and beneath the painted figures on the vase—the narrator sees two distinct scenes, consisting primarily of figures engaged in two activities common to Greek life: raucous sexual play and religious celebration.
The speaker in the poem...
[The entire page is 1492 words long]
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