John Keats was inspired to write "Ode on a Grecian Urn" after visiting the British Museum and seeing an antique urn. The poem contemplates the images depicted on the urn, which show a scene of figures in a village celebration. Keats explores the paradox that the figures are frozen in time yet seem to tell a story. The analysis discusses how Keats uses paradoxes throughout the poem to reflect on the themes of art, beauty, and the passage of time.

1. PAPER NO : 5 – THE ROMANTIC LITERATURE
CRITICAL ANALYSIS 0F “ODE ON A GRECIAN
URN”
PREPARED BY
VISHVA GAJJAR
ROLL NO. 33
EMAIL ID : VISHVAGAJJAR27@GMAIL.COM
SMT. S.B.GARDI ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
BHAVNAGAR UNIVERSITY

2. John Keats
• Born: 31 October 1795 (London)
• Death: 23 February 1821 (Rome)
• Cause of death:Tuberculosis (age 25)
• He was one of the main figures of the second generation
of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and
P.B.Shelley.
• Although his poems were not generally well received by
critics during his lifetime, his reputation grew after his
death, and by the end of the 19th century, he had
become one of the most beloved of all English Poets.
• The poetry of Keats is characterised by sensual imagery,
most notably in the series of odes.

3. Introduction
• ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ is, probably a homage to the permanence of
beauty; especially the beauty of art in general and Hellenistic in
particular.
• The poet observed the painting of a village ceremony on a Grecian
Urn. Keats, a die heart romantic, ventures on to capture not only
what the sculpture might have intended but also what the flight of
poet's fancy could produce from yonder land.
• We are amazed at the artistic intrigues and fascinating power of
eloquence with which the purely romantic poet gives vent to his
inner emotions.

4. Inspiration
• John Keats has visited the British
Museum, where he sees an antique piece
of Grecian Urn.
• The poet sees figures on the urn and feels
its quietness. Though it is silent yet it tells
a story.
• Beauty lies in the eyes of beholder;
therefore story of the sculpture is
dependent on the minds of visitor and
watcher.

5. Critical Analysis
• Keats was a favorite of the New Critics—probably because he loved a
good paradox. In The Well Wrought Urn (Chapter 8, "Keats's Sylvan
Historian"), Cleanth Brooks takes a microscope to "Ode on a Grecian
Urn," and moves through it stanza by stanza.
• If we're on the lookout for paradoxes, then we might end up
highlighting the whole poem. The boughs can't shed their leaves, the
"melodist" pipes without getting tired or repeating himself, and love
is always waiting to be enjoyed. This whole warm, happy, noisy, busy
scene is actually cold, silent, and still.

6. Continue…
• The description of "cold pastoral" is pitch perfect. It's a summary
of the whole paradox fashioned so carefully in the piece: a cold,
inanimate surface (the urn) that depicts a warm, lively scene (a
pastoral).
• When the urn says "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," then, Brooks
wants us to keep our eyes open for irony. It's a "cold pastoral," and
a "silent form" that "say's" riddles. So we probably shouldn't trust
the urn to be honest with us, and take "beauty is truth, truth
beauty" at face value.

7. Conclusion
• He styles the urn "fair attitude" and a civilization of marble men.
The poet can see that the trees, branches and weeds have quite
surrounded the urn. The urn is "cold pastoral" because it has rural
scenery and a silent race that cannot speak.
• The poet "may cease to be" but the urn shall remain in the world,
in the midst of human woes and agony. The urn and its civilization
is a happy lot and it convinces the poet that art, in the form of
beauty, is capable of enduring the damages of time and age. The
poet is happy to have seen the beauty of the Grecian Urn.