On “Ode on a Grecian Urn“ or Once More – Ah, Keats!

Keats’s odes are the highest achievement of his poetry, the crown of his work. Although they are complex and sometimes point to opposites, there is a distinct component of life celebration in all of them. Since their lyrical speaker is the poet himself, these odes, which are highly emotional in themselves, additionally hit the reader by the undercurrent of the biographical facts: young Keats writes these exuberant praises of life while aware of his own death approaching. “Ode on a Grecian Urn” stands out among all Keats’s odes, not by its perfection because they are all perfect, but by the used method and achieved complexity. In comparison to the others, it rests more on contemplation and less on imagery. It is also the most elaborate one: it puzzles the critics for centuries, and its last two lines are known as the most discussed verses in the history of English literature. Part of the answer to the difficulties of its interpretation comes from the fact that Keats has a double role in this ode: on one side, he observes and comments on the Grecian urn as an object of art; on the other, he is the very creator of it since, as far as we know, the urn existed only in his imagination.

As an observer of the urn, Keats reacts to it as we usually do when an art work resonates in us: we are emotionally moved because we recognize in it something important for our lives; we are intellectually stimulated because some well-needed truth suddenly appears within our grasp. The manner is the same; it is the intensity that differs: Keats’s reaction is so powerful that it goes far beyond all usual experiences. From which source comes the ecstasy that lifts the poet so high? It comes from a magic trick that Keats performs in this poem: on one side, his kindled imagination makes the scenes that he observes totally alive, so much so that he addresses the figures of the statuary directly, sharing with them his contemplation over their destiny; on the other side, his mind realizes that the time of the stories told by the urn’s carvings is eternity, that whatever is happening in the marble scenes is happening forever. Thus, the miracle comes from the amazing ability of his poetic soul to make an impossible match: the match of life and permanency. Permanency is an element of all art. But what makes this urn so exciting for the poet is the fact that it hits the permanency at the most desirable spot: there, where beauty and truth come together!

Thinking about Keats as a creator of the urn brings his personal drama even closer to the reader. Young, talented, engaged to be married and, yet, aware of his impending death, Keats creates in his imagination an urn – a vessel tied to vanishing and death, not a vase – a vessel tied to flourishing and life. He also carefully choses the scenes to be lined on it: no Achilles killing Hector, no Medea performing sorcery, no Centaurs merrymaking, no cutting of Medusa’s head, no hunting of boars, no launching of war-ships, no raging of mighty gods – none of the well-known mythological stories. This careful avoidance indicates that the poet does not long for the highly paid happiness of heroes that consists of fame and praising; he longs for the pure and simple happiness of being alive. Thus, he chooses the scenes in which a happy melodist pips ditties, a fair youth sings, a couple is just about to consume their love, and pious folk enjoy a religious celebration. These are all the moments of intense happiness in a common human life, and the urn, as a piece of art, catches them and makes them alive forever.

The world that Keats’s imagination sees engraved on the urn is placed in the pastoral ideal of “Tempe or the dales of Arcady” (7). In it, spring is the only season, the vigor and fairness of youth is everlasting, love is always at its peak moment and still to be enjoyed (20, 26), there is no tiredness – the happy melodist is forever unwearied (23), there is no repetition – his songs are forever new (24), and the festivities of “happy pieties” (“Ode to Psyche” 41) go on and on. If the ashes of a past human existence are put in such an urn, what will they be wrapped around with? Keats’s associations are all of death and paradise. The paradise, which Keats-the-observer discovers in the marble scenes of the Grecian urn, is created by Keats-the-creator of the urn.

“Ode on a Grecian Urn” is closely related to two other odes of Keats. Its predominant feeling – a deep and urgent yearning for permanency – is present in “Ode to a Nightingale” as well. While in “Ode on a Grecian Urn” the poet discovers permanency in art, in “Ode to a Nightingale,” he sees it in a nightingale’s song as an unchangeable phenomenon of nature. On the other side, the feeling of delight that Greek art, with its perfect human bodies assuming the most beautiful poses, provokes in the poet is also present in “Ode on Indolence.” While, in “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” Keats-the-creator gives up the happiness of mythological heroes, in “Ode on Indolence,” he goes even further and gives up Love, Ambition, and Poetry – all for the bliss of mere existence!

Although “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and “Ode to a Nightingale” expose the harsh realities of human existence in the world of change, although “Ode on Melancholy” masterfully reveals the mysterious connection between opposites that give birth to each other and may not be clearly separated – the predominant feeling by far of all Keats’s odes is deep, passionate enjoyment in the wonders of life. How does he make pure joy weigh so much more on the scale of human life? Where does he extract all that honey from? There is something blissful in his nature that allows writing odes, songs of high praises: it is his capability to, while in the midst of woe, turn his head toward the things fit for praising; it is his imagination that so readily and abundantly enriches the positive experience of this world; it is his five gifted and vibrant senses that do not allow wasting of any of that richness; it is his ability to get into the ecstatic and dreamlike visionary states from which he sings “by [his] own eyes inspired” (“Ode to Psyche” 43); it is, finally, his famous musical ear and rare mastery of the language that allow turning of all these qualities into the supreme poetry.

Thus, all Keats’s odes may be seen as works of the one “whose strenuous tongue / Can burst Joy’s grape against his palate fine” (“Ode on Melancholy” 27-28). Yet, it takes more than powerful language and sensitive senses to write such verses: it takes a miracle that is called a poet. The depth and beauty revealed in the odes are the reflection of the internal depth and beauty of Keats’s being. He is able to recognize the nightingale’s song because he himself “[Sings] of summer in full-throated ease” (10), he himself “[pours] forth [his] soul abroad / In such an ecstasy” (57). It is his love embrace that makes Psyche a “happy, happy dove” (22), and from the over-brimmed cells (“To Autumn” 11) of his interior, the mellowness, abundance, and content of the autumn emanate. Keats’s odes reveal on and on that he is the truly beautiful one.

His untimely death still saddens the hearts. And if he yearned for love, he is still getting it. And if he yearned for permanency, he has found it. Prolonging his life breath by breath, prolonging his life beyond the breath, he cried out not one, but a string of swansongs. Ah, for the beautiful soul that could thus utter itself at the brink of death! With an utmost grace, Keats’s words invite generations and generations of the responsive souls ahead to dance. Our side changes; his is eternal.