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Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”: A Catch 22

Bridget Walsh

John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is an emotive fifty-line poem that aims to propagate the

value of timeless significance by interpreting the static art present on the face of a Grecian urn. In doing so,

the poem marginalizes the temporal aspects of human life. However, after a careful deconstruction of the

text, the marginalized concepts become centric. Meaning becomes increasingly enigmatic and begins to

slide as paradox and conflicting fragments confront the reader, leading to aporia. The poem becomes

independent of its author as the reader is left without the closure or definition that has come to be

expected---forcing an arrival at a unique interpretation each time.

The subject of the poem, the urn itself, is privileged over the author (Keats) within the first stanza as

it can “…express/ A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:” Here it is evident that the urn is able to

transcend beyond the confines of language, whereas Keats is forced to express himself through prose. The

urn, a “Sylvan historian”, is material and therefore not bound by the temporal changes of language or to a

specific time period. Unlike a human voice (such as Keats’) that can only speak to what is immediately

present. This is further exemplified in the second stanza when Keats claims, “Heard melodies are sweet,

but those unheard/ Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;/ Not to the sensual ear, but, more

endeared, / Pipe to the spirit…” Again the “unheard melodies” of the urn are privileged because they speak

to the “more endeared” spirit whereas heard melodies of the physical world are merely interpreted by the

“sensual ear”. The eternal internal human condition can only be truly understood from a vantage point free

from the constraints of time. As a result, the urn has the ability to “tease us out of thought/ As does

eternity” Young lovers on the face of the urn are similarly extolled for possessing a timeless quality as

Keats writes, “Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou cannot leave/… For ever will thou love, and she be fair!”

The couple is never required to confront death or aging and is therefore emancipated, existing outside time

forever. It is clear that ephemeral human passions are insignificant when compared to the timeless wisdom

of the immortal urn.

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Upon further analysis however, it is clear that the only way an urn can “express” something is

through human interpretation. It is not until Keats writes about the urn that it is able to speak; therefore it

cannot express anything sweeter than his rhyme. Moreover, as a corporeal “historian” the urn relays

stories, but can also break; it is not, as Keats would like to believe, everlasting. When Keats writes a poem

communicating the urn’s message that “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” he in fact conveys sentiment much

more permanently. It would appear that Keats is in fact central, rather than peripheral, if we are to

understand anything of the urn. Initially the statement seems to support timeless triumph but in fact is self-

undermining; the word “express” can be placed sous rature . Similarly the glorified “lovers” cannot in fact

love each other forever as Keats states, “never, never can thou kiss” The pair can never experience

anything more, can never deliver affection or engage in amorous activities. They will love each other both

forever and never, as they cannot ever fulfill their love or destroy it. In actuality they are frozen and stuck in

time rather than liberated from it. This undercurrent of paradoxical turmoil extends beyond the lovers as

well. The privileged urn is not merely an object devoid of life, but an object that carries human ashes and

with that connotations and thoughts of death. However, although Keats has granted the urn an elevated

status within the poem, he represses imagery associated with death. In the third stanza the trees on the

urn are praised because they will never “bid the Spring adieu;” The evocation of Spring brings to mind

images of growth and life. Likewise the “happy melodist, unwearied,” is applauded because he will be “For

ever piping songs for ever new;” Keats reiterates his praise for a state of perpetual wakefulness and scorns

the fatigue felt by human passion which leaves “a heart high-sorrowful and cloyed” Keats appears to be

centering life over death even though death is the ultimate state of timelessness which he has previously

sought to privilege. Yet again the poem has deconstructed itself into a state of dissolution. The urn is

always and already both timeless and temporary, both life-like and dead.

The corollary of a deconstruction of a text or ideal is the production of new understanding. Although

human beings strive to affix meaning and look for the rules for living in a fundamentally uncertain world, we

should relish in the thought that understanding is not finite. Differance is invariably present in everything,

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yet it serves to diversify our thoughts keeping our minds open. By recognizing the center and thus the

critical role the of the peripheral, norms can be challenged and rules can begin to bend. To quote

philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche greater sense of individuality can be realized when we embrace that

“There are no facts, only interpretations.”