John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" features a speaker reflecting on the nature of art as he looks at the figures painted on an urn. Throughout the poem, the speaker observes the static figures and draws conclusions about the way in which the urn freezes the figures eternally in the states depicted on the urn.
The speaker talks directly to the urn, and he addresses it as "Sylvain historian," meaning that the urn chronicles the activities of this pastoral scene and preserves them for all time. As the speaker continues into the second stanza, he offers some examples of the figures that are frozen in time:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!
The "youth" will always be listening to the silent "music" being played by "soft pipes" illustrated on the urn, and the trees will always be in flower. Though the lover will never actually get the kiss he aims for, he should "not grieve" because his beloved "cannot fade." Because the scene is frozen in time on the urn, she will always be beautiful and he will always love her. These elements are made eternal by their inscription on the urn.
The speaker continues to celebrate, though now more ecstatically, the immortality of the scene in the third stanza. He exclaims,
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever panting, and for ever young;
The trees will never lose their leaves, and the urn maintains nature and man in this eternal springtime. The musician will never get tired, and his music will always entertain. Love will always "be enjoy'd" since it can never fade or grow old. It will always be just as it is depicted here.
After more reflection on the specific details of the urn, the speaker concludes,
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,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
The speaker celebrates the immortality of the urn. While the world around it will go to "waste," the urn "shalt remain." The speaker sees this as a comfort "in midst of other woe." We can always depend on the lasting nature of this beauty.
The images on the urn are frozen in time. Presumably, if the urn survives the effects of erosion and decay, those images will remain there forever. Likewise, a poem (such as "Ode on a Grecian Urn") can exist forever as long as it continues to be read. There is an immortality to poetry that visual art cannot capture because the poem can be written or passed on orally.
Keats isn't just suggesting that art is immortal. He is philosophizing on what that immortality means and what its value is. The melodies he imagines from the pipes on the urn are "sweeter" because they are always there to be imagined. Melodies that are actually heard (in real life) might be flawed and only exist for a certain amount of time. Therefore, the unheard melodies shown on the urn are superior. On the other hand, isn't there something flawed about a melody that is not heard? The lovers are always almost kissing, but they never do. So, although the urn expresses immortal images and ideas, they do not "live" so to speak.
In short, there are benefits and drawbacks to art's immortality. The urn shows a number of things that are immortal and frozen in time, but those images lack the lived experience that makes them come alive. The urn is immortal but "cold." Art, such as the urn or this poem, is flawless in its immortality, but also lifeless. How can something be immortal but not alive?
Keats ends with a cryptic line about beauty and truth. Given this discussion of life and art, he might be suggesting that truth and beauty manifest in life and art in different ways. In other words, the truth of art's immortality is not the same as the truth of an immortal (human) life, but there is beauty in both notions.
No comments:
Post a Comment