Ode to a Grecian Urn

• Themes

  • Mortality
  • Art
  • Beauty
  • Truth
  • History
  • Imagination
• Structure

  • builds on a specific structure - Split into five verses (stanzas) of ten lines each
  • The rhyme scheme is split into two , with the final three lines of each stanza varying slightly. For the first seven lines, a rhyme scheme of ABABCDE is used, though the instance of the CDE part is not always as strict. In verse one, the final three lines are DCE; in the second verse, they’re CED; stanzas three and four both use CDE, while the fifth and final stanza uses DCE. This gives the piece a ponderous feel, adding a sense of deliberation
• "Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:"


  • “Sylvan” - associated with the forest, and deities or spirits associated with trees, such as the dryads of Greek mythology - evocative of the woods, the urn is dignified - also tells stories about history of forest.
  • A border of leaves encircles the vase, and the scene is set in the woods.
  • designs that depict the “flowery” story (both metaphorically in that it’s complicated and literally in that there are floral illustrations) The beauty of the urn transcends time and keeps this history intact.
• "What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?"

  • commenting on the irony that these paintings on the urn are so stimulated and energetic with “mad” and “struggle” but also mysterious and alienated from reality, as is shown by his questioning.
  • This describes am ancient Greek Dionysian rite,
  • “Pipes” are flutes or panpipes; “timbrels” are tambourines. Both can still be found at a hippie gathering near you.
• "therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:"


  • young man playing a pipe, lying with his lover beneath trees. The speaker here says that the piper’s “unheard” melodies are sweeter because they are unaffected by time.
  • ‘ditties of no tone’ is open to interpretation. These ‘ditties’ - light songs - have no ‘tone’ that can be heard, because they belong to the spirit - music remains in the ear of the listener, something personal to each individual.
  • rhyme of ‘ear’ and ‘more endear’d’, a concise way of expression a complex idea.
• "Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;"


  • repeats the adjective ‘happy’ several times, an example of anaphora, amplifying the idea of the joy the tree feels. It never has to lose its leaves or meet the end of Spring - suggests Keats feels envy
  • The poet personifies the bough, just as he does many of the inanimate objects in this poem, adding impact and significance to the imagery.
• "All breathing human passion far above, That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd, A burning forehead, and a parching tongue."


  • narrator laments over the struggles over normal human life. The lovers on the urn might not have “breathing human passion,” but they also do not have to deal with sickness, sorrow, thirst, or any other trials and tribulations of the living and breathing.
• "Who are these coming to the sacrifice? To what green altar, O mysterious priest, Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies, And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?"


  • continues the idea of loss: looking at the procession of people and animals on urn
  • He pictures places that might have lost them - these places are frozen, and none one can ever return
  • sacrifice of cow, an image that appeared in the Elgin Marbles, Claude Lorrain’s Sacrifice to Apollo and other things
  • rhetorical questions - poem is an intellectual exploration, expressing Keats' youthful uncertainty.
• "Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!


  • The speaker addresses the urn, as he comes closer and closer to the resolution. The urn, though silent, seems to inspire increasingly complex ideas.
  • “silent” - urn being lifeless - cannot reply, and the history of urn is unkown
  • the speaker reaches a point where he can’t really understand it any further - can’t wrap his mind around it, as happens when we try to comprehend eternity–if we think too hard about it, it loses its meaning - our finite minds cannot understand it, and we sit silent + humbled.
• "When old age shall this generation waste, Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,"


  • Because humans not made of stone or marble, we fall victim to time - Keats' generation will age and die off, but the urn will not.
  • “generation” - also be interpreted to mean both a measure of time and something created
  • Though the “woes” of the old generation will be replaced by those of the new one, the urn will kindly stick around to give them some of the most immortal advice ever written…