Reading Response Ode on a Grecian Urn Keats PDF

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Moore 1 Claire Moore IHUM 202 Professor Haddock 20 May 2020 Reading Response Ode On a Grecian Urn In Keats’ poem, Ode On a Grecian Urn, he uses detailed descriptions of the scenes depicted on ancient Greek vase to explain how art and poetry are more beautiful than mortal life because they do not grow old and die, but withstand the test of time. In the second stanza, Keats captures an idyllic scene that includes a musician, trees, and a young lover. He writes that the music of the musician, though unheard, is more beautiful than any actual music, because we imagine it as the ideal as we cannot actually hear the sounds being played. He also says that the trees will never be barren, because the healthy and full-of-life representation of their leaves is frozen in the vase and will not change. Last of all, Keats longingly explains that, though the man will never kiss his Love, it is better this way because they will always be together and will never age or die. At the end of his poem, he writes, “When old age shall this generation waste, Thou shalt remain” (Keats 46-47). Keats is saying that humans will eventually grow old and die because we are mortal. Beautiful things, like the human body, buildings, and nature, begin to decay with time. He is almost envious of the figures on the urn because he recognizes that the state they are in is permanent. Ultimately, this is Keats’ message; art and poetry are the highest forms of beauty because they are eternal....