artistic illustration of a Grecian urn set against a backdrop of hills and columns

Ode on a Grecian Urn

by John Keats

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Student Question

Could you explain sections 4 and 5 of "Ode on a Grecian Urn"?

Quick answer:

In stanza 4, the speaker describes a sacrificial procession on the urn, pondering the silent, empty town left behind, symbolizing the eternal nature of the depicted scene. Stanza 5 reveals the urn's impact on the speaker, who reflects on the contrast between the urn's timeless beauty and life's fleeting nature. The urn embodies eternity, evoking both melancholy and peace as it highlights the brevity of human existence.

Expert Answers

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Stanza 4 of the poem describes another scene on the Grecian Urn. It is a scene where people are on their way to present a heifer [cow] as a sacrifice to one of their Gods. A priest leads the animal to be killed as a sacrifice. In lines 35-30, the speaker imagines the town from where the people came as being quiet and empty. He says:
"And little town thy streets forevermore/Will silent be; why thou art desolate". In other words, we will never know why the sacrifice is being made because the people in the scene are now gone. However, their actions will live on forever because they are emblazoned on the urn.
Stanza 5 shows the effect the urn has on the speaker. He says it is like looking at eternity. "Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought/As doth eternity. ( lines 44-45). Then the speaker realizes both the sadness and the strange peace he experiences because he is brought face to face with idea that life is short. As the poem ends, the speaker sees the fact that even though the beauty of the urn is timeless, it also reminds us of the brevity of our own lives.

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