and becomes more and more identified with it. The rise in emotion crescendos in the middle of the poem, in stanza three, as the speaker repeats the word "happy" over and over again, emphasizing his joy with the repeated use of exclamation points. After this high point, the speaker gradually comes down from his sense of euphoria.

Antithesis is another poetic device as the unchanging, eternal quality of the urn is continually contrasted to the fast changes of the natural world. One example is the speaker's delight that it will be forever spring on the urn:

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves

There are numerous poetic techniques employed in "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by the Romanticist poet John Keats. Among these are elements of the sonnet form and rhyme, imagery, symbolism, alliteration, and personification.

Within the theme of how Art has the power to convey the truth of human experience, Keats uses several poetic devices:

• Personification

Addressing the urn as "bride of quietness" and "Sylvan historian," Keats gives human traits to the Grecian urn as he acknowledges that it contains a "flowery tale" that is sweeter than the poet's rhyme. Further, he comments, "Ah, happy, happy boughs!" 

• Imagery

In stanza I the poet describes the painting on the urn with its deities and mortals, maidens, and men. There is a "leaf-fringed legend," "pipes and timbrels." The urn depicts religious celebration and sexual play among other aspects of life. However, these images are frozen in time and the lovers will never kiss as they are arrested in their movements because they are painted on the urn.

In stanzas IV and V there is visual imagery with such descriptions as the "green altar," the heifer's "silken flanks with garlands," "river or seashore," the "red-breast," "a garden croft" and "gathering swallows."

• Alliteration

There is the repetition of the /th/ in line 18: "She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss."

In another example, the /s/ is repeated in this line: "Will silent be; and not a soul to tell." And the /h/ is repeated throughout this line: "More happy love! more happy, happy love!"

• Symbolism

Employing the symbols of "trees" for Nature, "song" for Art, and "Bold Lover" for procreation, Keats explains the tension between what is on the urn and what is real. For the urn, "truth is beauty, beauty truth" (a literary device called chiasmus). This beauty lasts because it is frozen in time. However, for the poet who knows that beauty does not last, the truth is not restricted to the images on the urn. He realizes that the lovers will never consummate their love but will remain only in their moment.  

• "Sonnet" form

Keats uses iambic pentameter, and his poem resembles a sonnet as it is laid out on the page; however, there are only ten lines in each stanza. Still, the stanzas have a pattern to them as the rhyme scheme is nearly consistent throughout: The first four lines are ABAB, and the next six are CDE and then some variation of CDE (CED).

One poetic technique that is used in this poem from the outset is metaphor. The speaker compares the urn he is talking about to a series of different images that each point towards the centrality and importance of the urn as a symbol of eternal beauty. Note the comparisons that are established in the first couple of lines:

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
     Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express...

The urn is compared to a "still unravish'd bride of quietness," a "foster-child of silence and slow time" and a "Sylvian historian." These metaphors are very important in the way that they establish the sense of how this urn represents a transcendent beauty for Keats. For him, the urn is "unravish'd" in the sense that it stands for how true beauty and art does not diminish or fade over the years. True beauty dwells in a realm of "silence and slow time" that allows Keats to develop the contrast between the urn and the frail humans who are left to contemplate such beauty in their brief mortal spans. Therefore metaphor is one poetic technique that Keats uses with great effect in this poem.

For Keats, the Grecian urn symbolizes a paradox: it depicts so much of what makes life worth living—music, love, youth, beauty—but in representing these things as static and unchanging, it seems to represent death as well; even the very shape of the vessel, which is an urn, is often synonymous with death.

For example, the bold lover's beloved described in the second stanza "cannot fade" and will "be fair" forever, while he will love her forever. Likewise, the season of spring will never pass, and the boughs, so full of flowers, "cannot shed" their leaves and petals. The "happy melodist" will be forever "piping songs" and will never tire of playing and singing. There will always be "more happy, happy love" to be enjoyed by these who will never grow old. In this way, then, they seem to achieve immortality.

However, it is a "Cold Pastoral" too. The musician and the lovers "canst not leave," and the lover can never actually kiss his beloved. He will never have his "bliss," because he can only ever be just about to kiss her. They will seem to love forever, but there is also something of an emptiness conveyed by the fact that this love will be forever "warm and still to be enjoy'd"—it is not "breathing human passion." Somewhere, there is a "little town" that is emptied of its people, and it will be desolate forever. This is death.

Thus, for Keats, the painting on the urn seems to immortalize something beautiful about life and, in immortalizing it, actually kills it, suggesting that what makes life—and youth, beauty, love, and so on—so beautiful is its changeability, its dynamism, the fact that it does not last forever.

Literary devices cover just about any technique a writer or poet uses to communicate a message to the reader. Before looking at the devices Keats uses, we can start with the message that he is trying to convey and see what devices he uses to reinforce his points. In this poem, Keats hopes to communicate how mesmerized or enchanted he is as he gazes at the picture on a Grecian urn. He wants us to see the picture on the urn just as he does. He also wants us to understand how excited he is at the emotions the picture evokes in him. As he looks at the young people merrily headed to a pagan festival, he thinks, wow, because they are works of art, they will never age! They will never get sick! They will always be as happy as they are at this moment, which is a very happy moment for them. How cool is that? As he thinks about this, he experiences an outburst of joy that he wants us to feel too. He also wants us to think, as he does, about whether it is better to be mortal or to be a work of art, and then to follow his thoughts to their ambiguous conclusion.

To help us see the picture on the urn, Keats uses imagery, such as the "soft pipes" the musicians play and "fair youth, beneath the trees." These are images because we can hear or see them in our imagination. He shows the "bold lover" at the point--forever--of kissing (but not quite kissing) his "fair" beloved. He tells us of the spring leaves forever on the trees. We see the heifer "with garlands drest" and the little town that is empty because everyone has gone out to the country for the festival. 

To help us feel how exciting the idea of never aging or dying is to him, he directly addresses the picture on the urn in ecstatic or passionate language. This form of direct address is called apostrophe. As the poem hits its emotional highpoint, Keats is so absorbed in the urn that he cries out to the branches of the trees, the piping musician, and the lovers, saying:

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! 

"Ode on a Grecian Urn" is characterized by a highly lyrical tone with specific stanza forms and rhyme schemes.  There are five ten-line stanzas with a single rhyme scheme that combines the “quatrain of a Shakespearean sonnet with the sestet of a Petrarchan sonnet.” Check the link below for specifics on the rhyme scheme and other literary devices.  With the devices above you should be in great shape.

"Ode on a Grecian Urn" is a type of lyric poem, meant to express emotion. Keats, in this poem, conveys the joy art offers, transporting us to a different realm where beauty does not age or die, and joy never fades.

Keats's speaker shows the power of being able to imaginatively engage with and merge mentally with a piece of art. The speaker is so taken with the scene that he sees on a Grecian urn that he eventually breaks out in repeated exclamations of the word "happy" in stanza 3. This word communicates the speaker's feelings about the state of mind of the figures on the urn, his conviction that the ancient Greek festival was a joyful event, and his emotion of joy at the thought of never having to suffer, grow old, and die.

The speaker contrasts the ageless quality of art, in which the figures on the urn will remain forever young and forever experiencing the joy of a spring festival day, with human beings, who experience unhappiness, pain, and death. Wouldn't it be better, the speaker asks, to be frozen at one particularly blissful moment of youth?

By taking a long moment to focus on the value of art and beauty, Keats encourages us to enter into and value art's timeless, alternative world.

Throughout "Ode on a Grecian Urn," the speaker describes the images with which the eponymous urn is decorated. In pondering these images the speaker also reflects upon the nature and purpose of art.

In the final lines of the poem, the speaker indicates that the images on the urn seem to communicate one idea, namely that "beauty is truth, truth beauty." In other words, the speaker reflects that beauty and truth are one and the same thing. Perhaps we might take this to mean that wherever and whenever one finds beauty, one will also find truth in that beauty. For example, the beauty of a person might point to the pleasing truth of that person's character. Likewise the beauty of the natural world might point to what many Romantics like Keats considered a truth—that God manifests himself through nature.

We might also say that there is a truth in the beauty of art, such as the images with which the urn is decorated. The beauty of art perhaps points to the truth that human beings are inherently creative, imaginative beings.

We could also postulate that wherever there is truth, there is also, necessarily, beauty. There is often a simplicity to truth that appears beautiful, especially when there is, surrounding that truth, so much that is untrue, disingenuous, and deceptive. There is also a beauty in the truth, or realization, that humans are creative beings capable of producing timeless, beautiful works of art, such as the eponymous urn.

These lines come in the third stanza, which apparently celebrates the eternal nature of the emotions depicted in the scene painted onto the side of the Grecian urn. The urn is, of course, used as a symbol of eternal art, as it has preserved beautiful scenes from Greek history for a very long time. The third stanza talks of the speaker's enthusiasm or excitement at seeing the emotion conveyed in this scene which has remained the same since it was first created. The lines you have identified, however, present a slightly negative picture of the scene:

All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloyed,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.

These lines seem to describe the consequences of excessive passion by talking about passion that is "far above" and the results of indulging in such a passion, which are feeling heart-sick and having a "burning forehead" and a "parching tongue."

Well, a good place to start is looking at the first stanza of this excellent poem and seeing the number of metaphors that are contained even in the first three lines. Let us remember that a metaphor is an example of figurative language that compares one thing with something else without the word "like" or "as." See if you can spot the three metaphors in the first three lines of this excellent poem:

Thou still unravished 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...

The speaker of this poem then begins his Ode by comparing the Grecian urn he is contemplating to an "unravished bride," a "foster child of silence and slow time," and a "Sylvan historian." Note the point of these metaphors: Keats is highlighting how the urn is undamaged by time by comparing it to a virgin bride; he is saying how it has long been protected by comparing it to a "foster child" of time and silence"; and lastly, he shows how it preserves history by calling it a "Sylvan historian." Now, see if you can find any other examples of literary devices in this poem. Good luck!

You can divide the poem into sections by the visual elements the poet is describing.  You can tell that the poet is explaining what he sees on this ancient piece of art by his question and answer technique and by his use of apostrophe to address is, as if it would answer his questions itself.

Each stanza describes a scene such as the "leaf fringed' border and the gods and maidens frolicing in a "mad pursuit" of one another in the first stanza.

In the second stanza, a lover playing a pipe is described as he wanes for his true love.  In the third the speaker describes a religious ceremony with a priest and a "green altar".

Several other images present themselves to the viewer, and they all culminate in the final message:

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

Here the poet is commenting upon the ultimate concept of beauty and how it can accurately reflect all humanity from all times.

Some of this information and a copy of the txt can be fourd at the link referenced below.

Stanza 1, the speaker is addressing the urn itself.  He mentions it is timeless and has lasted for a long time and asks questions of the message on its side--who are these lovers? These gods? The story behind the chase and the piper? Stanza 2, he says he can imagine the tune the piper plays and it is sweeter than one actually heard simply because everyone who imagines the tune will imagine one that would sound sweet to him...therefore the imagined tune is sweeter to everyone.  He also mentions the trees whose leaves will never fall and the lover always on the verge of that first kiss. The girl will always be lovely, it will always be Spring. How wonderful to be stuck in that position. Stanza 3, he continues with the idea of being stuck in the good part of love and weather.  The lovers will never experience vengence or hurt, and the spring weather wil always be balmy, not hot and parching. Stanza 4, he speaks of the cow decorated with flowers being led by a priest to the sacrifice.  The town is deserted and no one will ever know why since it's not on the urn...the water is ever present and the streets are forever silent.  The people can never return home since they were not painted onto the urn's story. Stanza 5, he mentions the shape of the urn and the stories etched there forever.  He bemoans that after we are dead the urn will still exist.  Cold, hard beauty and truth remains. It is all we need to know.

Keats was inspired to write this poem after seeing the scenes painted on an ancient Greek urn. The eNotes introduction points out that the speaker "attempts to identify with the characters because to him they represent the timeless perfection only art can capture."

There is not enough room here to give you the meaning of every line in the poem. If you could point out a few lines that are difficult for you, that would be more doable.

Take a look at the eNotes summary and discusion of themes in the poem; I've pasted links to them below. I've also given you a link to an article on how to explicate, or analyze, poetry. You should find a lot of useful informaton there.

Good luck!

The "story" in "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is pretty basic as it hardly exists at all as the "characters" are pictures on an ancient Greek vase. So, really, if there is any story it is about the poet looking at the urn, thinking about it and the ideas it inspires and then writing these down. Of course, the picture represents a story. That story seems to contain two sweethearts. The male character appears to be interested in the female character and is trying to woo her. There are trees around with branches that are in leaf. There is a musician playing the pipes with songs that will be for ever new.This is because they are a snapshot in time and nothing in the picture story will ever age or become ugly. There seems to be a procession, as if it's some sort of celebration or ritual. All the characters are stuck in a time warp and Keats is playing with the idea of Time/Space/Motion/Gravity. He invents imagined places for the characters, but really, even if time never moved on for them, it does for everybody else including us.

In this poem, the narrator has found an old urn (like a vase) that was made long ago by some Greek person.  The urn is decorated with two scenes -- one of lovers listening to musicians under some trees and one of a priest leading a heifer to be sacrificed on an altar.

So the narrator is looking at this urn and contemplating what it means.

First he thinks it would be great to be the lovers or the musicians because they never die.  Their love and their music live forever.

But then he starts to think about how the lovers will never actually touch and make love, the musicians will never be heard by actual ears. And the town where the people are coming from to the sacrifice -- it will always be empty and desolate.

So by the end of the poem he's kind of conflicted and he thinks that because we're mortal we have to find something other than beauty to rely on.

In the first stanza, the speaker directly addresses an ancient Grecian urn, remarking upon its age and the pastoral image it depicts. Lovely young men and women, immortals perhaps, are lounging and frolicking, and their antics tell a story.

In the second stanza, the speaker says that the melody played by the person piping on the urn is lovelier than any that could be heard because it can last forever; likewise, the trees will never lose their leaves, and though the lover will never get his kiss, the beauty of his love will never fade. In a sense, then, they will never die, but they will also never live.

In the third stanza, the speaker describes the branches that will never be leafless and the season of spring that will last forever. Similarly, the love depicted will always be warm and full, never becoming — like real human passion — too much or painful or uncomfortable. Real love can feel like an illness, but the love depicted on the urn never will. This makes it pretty but untrue.

In the fourth stanza, the speaker asks about those people who approach, leading a cow decorated with flower garlands. He wonders about the little town, now emptied because all its people are walking through the countryside on their way to some mysterious religious service. It will be desolate forever.

In the fifth and final stanza, the speaker remarks on the urn's Athenian appearance, its artistry, continuing to address it directly (this technique is called apostrophe). He says that its silence makes him stop and think, and he calls it "cold." The scene may be lovely but it is not truly alive, and so it will live on even after the poet and his generation have died. The urn will continue to exist, to show people that "'Beauty is truth, truth beauty.'" In other words, then, the scene is gorgeous, but it is not truly beautiful because it is not truly alive. Real passion, for example, can go wrong, can fade, can die, but that is what makes it so beautiful while it lasts; the passion depicted on the urn is lovely, but it isn't truthful. Therefore, what is really beautiful in life is truthful, and what is truthful will also be beautiful.

There are five stanzas in Keat's poem:

Stanza 1:  The speaker is looking at an old Grecian urn thinking that the urn is able to better tell a story than a poem is.  The speaker questions what the tale might be about in the string of rhetorical questions.

Stanza 2:  The speaker sees a song being played and a pair of young lovers beneath a tree who are about to kiss.  The speaker comments on the everlasting nature of beauty and youth frozen in the image.

Stanza 3:  The speaker comments on the lovers' happiness and passion that revolves around the tree.

Stanza 4:  A heifer is being lead to a sacrifice and a quiet town is set near the shore.

Stanza 5:  The speaker comments on the everlasting nature of time and beauty frozen on the urn that is wasted in actual life.