When I first read Ode on a Grecian Urn, my mind refused to cooperate. It went numb. It took me a long while to slowly unravel the beauty of the poem.
What is your reaction when you first read Ode on A Grecian Urn?
How long does it take for the numbness to wear off?
Do you manage to discover the beauty of the ode or the mystery of the poem alludes you?
Perhaps by identifying the images in each of the stanza, you will get to form a comprehensible picture of the poem.
You might want to put in your understanding of the last couplet in the final stanza.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is one of the deepest poems I ever read!
ReplyDeleteTo be stunned after reading the first stanza make me wonder how am I going to interpret the true value of the poem and its beauty.
I tried to put myself in the shoe of the poet and try to imagine for what may he imagined.
To me, I imagine the view of a shepherd (Sylvan) of who he watch over his herd of cows. I believe the poet is a shepherd that overview the true value of love that he is going to share in this poem.
To some this may sound insane; I believe the poet was drunk with love but not literally. He was at the end of his life; I think he imagined that love in the purest form should be eternal. This is because at the end of life is when he realize how precious life with love can be.
To imagine all of this within the hour seems to be impressive. For that I could not do now. But I believe the few images that I can imagine above will be develop more in time as I get more time to go deeper into the poem.
Hello Puan Juridah.......Khayma here again
ReplyDeleteOkay, the first time i read Ode to Grecian Urn....I was in Form 6.....At that time i had already fallen in love with John Keats as i had read some of his other works.....
I think this poem is beautiful in the way he has put in the imgeries that awakens our senses in so many different manner....
Keats....was a man who admired and enjoyed beauty..... his famous qoutes on beauty...
" Beauty is truth, Truth is Beauty "
" A thing of Beauty is Joy forever "
Okay, many ppl might think that he only likes things that are beautiful, but do not forget, the subject of beauty is subjective....Beauty is afterall in the eye of the beholder..... thus....he saw many things that were beautiful...and all things beautiful was immortalised in his poetry......
Yes....beauty is truth...beauty is joy...when you see something beautiful...it brings joy to you....a sense of calm and peace and happiness....a rose for an example....the smell and the beauty of its being makes us all happy......or, the beauty of a summertim garden......the flowers makes us calm and happy.......
Now, for the imageries in the poem....
Stanza 1 :there are temples, flowers,deities and mortals ( dichotomy again), pipes, timbrels,
Stanza 2: Lovers, melodies.....
Stanza 3: Boughs, spring season,songs, paintings...
Stanza 4: priest, alter, garland, seas...
Stanza 5 :marble man, forest branches,cold pastoral....
Each of this stanza represents imagiries that awakens different senses of ours, such as music awakens the sense of hearing,
forest and flower, our smell and visual senses,
the painting....the senses of visual...
the lovers...the senses of touch....as they want to kiss......
the marble man.....and maiden....the sense of touch again.......
Oh well.....in this poem,....like ode to nightingale....Keats wants to badly be like the drawings on the urn....as the drawings are immortalised there.....but as a man....living and breating,,,he has to die somehow...the marble man,.... made out of stone...will live on forever and ever...
They do not suffer or go through the pain that living man does, thus Keats wants to be like the drawing there....be young...forever and ever.....immortalised as marble on the urn....
Again...the idea of beauty.....and immortalisation....the paintings and the pictures on the urn is so lovely, that Keats wants to be there....and forget the harsh realities of the world...
Beauty is truth....Truth is beauty.....
A thing of beauty is joy forever....
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder....
It is how we percieve beauty that will make us appreciate it and understand it......
The urn is so beautiful that it awakens and caresses all our senses slowly.....And that is all that we need to know of the urn....
At first, i find it's hard to understand this poem. But after i read it more carefully, i think that the poet wants to create a world of pure joy, but in this poem the idealized or fantasy world is the life of the people on the urn. Keats sees them, simultaneously, as carved figures on the marble vase and live people in ancient Greece. Existing in a frozen or suspended time, they cannot move or change, nor can their feelings change, yet the unknown sculptor has succeeded in creating a sense of living passion and turbulent action.
ReplyDeleteOde to a Grecian Urn is a poem in which Keats makes imagery explain the physical aspects of an urn as well as the message behind its appearance. When explaining the physical attributes of the urn Keats describes its beauty by comparing the urn to places such
as“Temper” and “…the dales of Arcady” in line seven.
Imagery such as lines nineteen and twenty state “She cannot fade, through thou hast
not thy bliss, /For ever wilt though love, and she be fair”.
These lines colorfully relay the message that the urn is infinite and the image of life that is presented on it will be eternity.
This poem also speaks about hoping and imaginations of something taht is no there...isn't something that we do not know about more exciting than something that we do know about...that is part of Keats idea in this poem....
ReplyDeleteBearing in my mind that all of Keats odes were wirtten to appreciate something, and to show his deep need to escape...in this poem...he wants to escape and be part of something that he himself is not sure of....the urn does look beautiful...but one does not really know if life as the picture the urn...so...keats wants to escape into something that he himself is not sure of.....that itself is beautiful.....as it shows his hopes and dreams....and the mysteriees that could be behind the beauty of the urn.....
I really don’t know what it’s about. I hate Ode. Anyway, for the sake of assignment, I forced myself to understand, still, my understanding of the poem is rather limited so I will only elaborate two stanzas.
ReplyDeleteIn the first stanza, the poet is somehow excited about what he can see from a motionless stone. If he is me he would see nothing. But from the stanza it seems that he sees life- the bride is “unravish'd” and the urn is touched by “slow time”.
In the second stanza, I see a couple under a tree trying to kiss, but the poet claimed that ‘never canst thou kiss’ yet he shouldn’t grieve because ‘she cannot fade’.
In the third stanza, I can see a tree which can’t shed leaves, a musician and a lover.
Is he actually daydreaming or he was once emotionally involved in a similar picture?
Choong Yar Hui- 151673
SITI AWATIF BINTI HAMZAH
ReplyDelete153126
The images described in this poem contribute to the interpretation of its context. There are many images of individuals from ancient Greece such as maidens, pipers, mortals, gods and young lovers. There are also images which depict the actions of those people. Many of them are contradict one another. Several of the images depict pleasure, while many following images depict pain.
When the speaker is gazing at the urn, he sees images of pleasure, but the people in the urn are frozen in time and only able to enjoy the present joys because they cannot experience life. This makes the images ironic as Keats writes, “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” (16-17). This quote exemplifies an example of a situation where pleasure is followed by pain. The man is in a blissful moment with his lover, however he never actually enjoying the kiss. Another example is when Keeats writes, “Fair youth beneath the trees, thou canst not leave thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare” (15-16). The trees are at their peak, however they cannot grow anymore and will never be as beautiful as they are right now.
In both the second and third stanzas, he expresses admiration for the people in the images and wonders what it would be to like to be them. The speaker is tempted by the melody of the piper’s tune and the eternal beauty of the woman. In the fourth stanza, he questions what it would be like if the people on the urn were to experience human time. He imagines they have a starting point and a destination rather than being trapped in time. He also describes the little town as being emptied. The final stanza offers the speaker’s conclusions on his efforts at engaging with the urn.
A small comparison to Sonnet 18.....by shakespeare.....there....shakespeare has immortalised beauty in the poem...
ReplyDeletein keats ode...he wants to be immortalised in the urn...
thats it....khayma...153271
Chong Wei Sam 151654
ReplyDeleteMy mind and soul left to wonderland when I first started to read Ode on a Grecian Urn. I forced them back to my world! The poetic world! I just read through for once then I had to check on my all mighty God - Longman Dictionary - what is urn?! The title itself of the poem did not welcome my visit. The words being used, I could not comprehend, so I have to read the summary! :P A very strong reason to read the summary first: I am a headstrong visual learner! The summary did a pretty good job to let me visualize what John Keats is actually talking about. And I am kind of amazed by Keats' dreamy world that is fully of images. He is talented in a special way. By looking at a urn, what I can imagine is that it's a container that filled with ashes of dead body.
What I failed to realise is the picture on the urn where Keats could relate to him very well.The similar theme being explored like the other poems of Keats - eternity. Each stanza leads us to the idea of eternity, a world that Keats was keen to live in, a world that has no ageing and death, a world to escape pain, truth and reality.
To be continued. I have to break it into 2 posts cuz I guess it's too long. That's why i couldnt post it.
Cont...
ReplyDeleteI am still in the stage that I can't fully comprehend and understand the whole poem in details. But I'm particularly attracted to the second and third stanzas. These two stanzas depict the image of a couple.
In the second stanza, literally, the speaker says that the piper's unheard melodies are sweeter than mortal melodies because they are unaffected by time. It can be interpreted as 'What we do not know, it's always the better.' It's similar to Emily Dickinson's poem: 'Success is counted sweetest/By those who ne'er succeed.' We appreciate things more when we don't get them easily. Keats is actually aware that the world he wants to live in, he can't get, thus, that world always remains as a better place to live in. This stanza also gives us an image of the piper that can't kiss his lover but the speaker says that he should not grieve about it because his lover's beauty will never fade. They are free from time at the same time also frozen in time. They do not have to face ageing and death and they can never experience them. Again, this image emphasizes Keats' dream of living in eternity.
The image in the third stanza is that it is spring. Because the image is frozen, therefore, the tress surrounding the lovers will never shed their leaves. The speaker is happy for the piper because his songs will be forever and the love of the boy and girl will also last forever. Third stanza also brings the idea of forever or eternity as I mentioned earlier. The last three lines of this stanza:'All breathing human passion far above/That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloyed/A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.' How an image of forehead or tongue can tell us about the world that Keats wants to live in? I find these three lines are pretty amazing. He says that when passion is satisfied, what remains is only wearied physicality, fatigue or boredom. But in the picture he sees, passion remains forever.
The last stanza leads me to compare it to sonnet 18. The speaker says when his generation is long dead, the urn will still remain telling stories to the future generations. In sonnet 18, it is the poem or the lines in the poem that will remain forever, as long as people live, the beauty of the lover will always been seen. Once again, Keats emphasises on eternity. 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,-that is all/Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.' Honestly even after reading the explanation, I still don't understand what it really means in these two lines. I refuse to type what the summary says cuz I don't even understand what it is talking about. For that I interpret it myself. I feel that the speaker is actually talking to himself. He is telling himself that beauty is true, beauty does exist. In his context, it would be the beauty on the urn that will remain forever. He wants to live in the picture on the urn. He is still indulging himself in his dreamy world. He wants to continue to be in this state, the only place he knows of, the only thing he needs. Imagine he is living in the picture on the urn, he gains what he always wants for in his life. No age, no pain, no death. There is only forever and ever. Perhaps, he wants time to stop and he is frozen. For that, he lives forever.
Adiba Zailan
ReplyDelete152111
Honestly, I don’t really understand and enjoy this ode. When I look through it for the first time, I just see another normal, plain and lengthy poem. I had to read this ode for more than 3 times to actually understand it, well half of it. Anyways, this is my understanding about ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’.
The speaker of the poem is looking at an ancient Grecian urn and he was looking at the pictures on the urn. He was mesmerized by the images on the urn such as flowers, temples, lovers and some paintings. And he started to think about all of these images and relates it to the immortality of human lives.
For me this poem is about a guy who does not want to face the reality, because he keeps on portraying about the immortality. He wants to put his life on the urn so that it will be immortal and will be there forever, not decaying. For example the paintings that shows a guy playing a pipe to his lover, and he was convinced that the unheard melodies that he plays are sweeter than any other melody because the melodies he plays will stay there forever and so does their love. He is comparing their eternal love with the mortal love that will not last forever, even though the piper did not actually get to kiss his lover.
But for me, if you love someone, you don’t have to be with them all the time like what the pictures on the urn trying to portray. Face the reality. People are mortal and so does everything that god create in this world, including beauty.
ADIBA ZAILAN
ReplyDelete152111
Honestly, I don’t really understand and enjoy this ode. When I look through it for the first time, I just see another normal, plain and lengthy poem. I had to read this ode for more than 3 times to actually understand it, well half of it. Anyways, this is my understanding about ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’.
The speaker of the poem is looking at an ancient Grecian urn and he was looking at the pictures on the urn. He was mesmerized by the images on the urn such as flowers, temples, lovers and some paintings. And he started to think about all of these images and relates it to the immortality of human lives.
For me this poem is about a guy who does not want to face the reality, because he keeps on portraying about the immortality. He wants to put his life on the urn so that it will be immortal and will be there forever, not decaying. For example the paintings that shows a guy playing a pipe to his lover, and he was convinced that the unheard melodies that he plays are sweeter than any other melody because the melodies he plays will stay there forever and so does their love. He is comparing their eternal love with the mortal love that will not last forever, even though the piper did not actually get to kiss his lover.
But for me, if you love someone, you don’t have to be with them all the time like what the pictures on the urn trying to portray. Face the reality. People are mortal and so does everything that god create in this world, including beauty.
Gan Shiau Yin (154568)
ReplyDeleteFor my first impression, this ode is very long boring and used too much imagery.
To better understand the poem, i seek the aid of the internet to better understand the overall meaning of the poem.
This poem is about immortality or immortalizing the beauty of life. Since John Keats wrote this poem when he was near dying, i can understand why he would feel that way. If we are not ready for death, the only other alternative is to wish for immortality.
Since only gods are immortality, we mortals will never know is it better to live for all eternity or to live a mortal life but cherish and enjoy every moment of it?
It might be possible that when mortals desire immortality, gods desire mortality.
Because we will never know what we never have, we should never assume that the grass is greener on the other side.
p/s:
The imagery that i found include:
shape, deities, mortals, pipes and timbrels, melodies, trees, youth, bold lover, kiss, leaves, piping songs, warm, panting, burning forehead, parching tongue, alter, priest, town, sea-shore, citadel, marble men and maidens, forest branches and trodden weed.
Hanisah Safian. 152604
ReplyDeleteHi Puan Ju! :)
to be realllyyyy honest, I dont even like this poem when I first saw it! Yes I am. Looking at the tittle " Ode to a Grecian Urn" makes me feels numb. :P
But after all, I still try hardly and hardly and hardly and.. * I really mean it Puan Ju* :P to understand the meaning of this poem.so, here it is.
Based on my understanding,Ode to a Grecian Urn is a poem that Keat tries to use "urn" to potray so much things.He used urn as a symbol to represent love, or perhaps a couple who are deeply in love.He potray a lover under a tree, while the man playing a pipe.
Instead, Keat also used urn to potray the atmosphere and the situation a group of villagers in their small vilage.Other than that, the important point in this poem is the "immortality" and "eternal".
Not to forget,Ode to a Grecian Urn brings so many imagery in it. For instance the pipe, flower, temple, lover, and the villagers.
I think thats all for now. I rest my case. phewwwwwww~ :P
Oh my, dear Pn. Ju. I almost forgot about this. So sorry.
ReplyDeleteThe first few times I read this poem, I am repelled by it. It having many words is okay. But it is filled with so many things all over the place that it makes me dizzy. It sounds like a mad or drunk man ranting about his love, going all over the place.
This poem is overloaded with imageries that it takes time to sit down and look at them one by one and impossible to get into it in one seating.
Now that I get to sit in silence and try to get into the poem, I see that it is quite beautiful, the words, the imageries. The poem basically talks about the love, the beauty, the perfectness of the love, the passion that is eternal and unchangeable. All of that is described through the use of the various imageries of which in this silence, I get to transport into and I get to see how beautiful it is (although the last two stanzas are quite confusing because it seemed to be a change of tone or something). But all in all, at then end there's still an emphasis that all the love and beauty and youth is engraved and will last forever even though the world around changes.
The last two lines, I don't quite get it. As much as I thought and analyzed, it sounds like it is reemphasizing about the love, the beauty which is so perfect and everlasting... something that is just a fraction of what the deities mentioned before might have known and all humans need to know.
All read and analysed without reference to any other source than my brain itself. :P
Dorothy Ting Siao Wei 153071
Nor faizahaishah bt Othaman 152319
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this novel for the firstime, I don’t understand at all. I keep saying to myself, “what is this poem is all about?”
After I make a few further reading on this poem, I found that this poem is so beautiful. The poem is giving the image about the lovers. They represent a timeless beauty that only can be kept in art form.. Some people might see that the sculpture is merely a rock but Keats portray the sculpture with many message. First, the sculpture gives the idea of frozen in time. The image of two lovers which is near each other and both of them is about to kiss. The lovers will be young and happy forever and their love will be eternity. Keats portrays this message into a sculpture of two lovers to keep the moment forever and remain unchanged. In addition, the “urn” reminding us for our dilemma, misery, question that occur in finite time. But this poem opens a door to happiness, it tells a never ending joy and happiness.
Sharmila Malakar 154744
ReplyDeleteWhen i first saw this poem, i didn't understand a thing at all. That was like a few months ago when i was simply going through all the poems that we were supposed to do in class. Then came that fateful day when u told us about this poem in general in the language lab. And the best part of it all is that i was assigned with this poem for my micro teaching. So after hearing your explanation, i got a rough idea of what the poet was trying to convey. I even asked Khaymalatha to explain to me the contents of this poem. Then i finally understood it.
Besides i Google-ed about the history of this poem. I found out about this guy named Sosibius who sculpted the Grecian Urn. As we know Greek is full with rich, wonderful and amazing history. So i assume Keats must have been captivated by the beauty of this urn to have created such an ode for this Grecian Urn.
This urn is a relic of ancient Greek and it has survived the passage of time. From this i managed to understand that the poet is trying to say that human life is changeable and its not permanent. Whereas a work of art or to be precise, this urn does not age or die. Therefore i can conclude that it's life versus art.
The frozen images and the dynamic life portrayed in this urn reminds me of my childhood. This is because i always hoped that time would not move forward and i will stay as a young happy child who likes running and playing. Here i was able to relate with this poem especially the second stanza. This is because the second stanza talks about the power of imagination. Imagination is more powerful than the reality. The power of imagination creates beauty in our minds, but reality hampers it.
Reality is very painful that is why i as able to relate to Keats. His family all died in a young age as they were infected with tuberculosis. So Keats knew that his death is coming. As a young man at that time he knows of this paradoxical dilemma that as mortals he exist's in finite time.
In the art world, nothing moves and everything remains as it it. Time is stilled. It's eternal and unchanging. Time has little effect on it and ageing is such a slow process that it can be seen as an eternal piece of artwork. The beauty of this urn will always remain and it will bring joy and truth for those who admire and understand the awesomeness of this poem. This is what i understood from the last 2 lines in the final stanza.
Isolde Hon Pei Sha (152560)
ReplyDeleteThe first time reading this ode reminded me of what my ex used to tell me : that his love for me shall never fade... but too bad. It didn't turn out the way we wanted it. Haha...
There are many imageries used in this ode.
For instance : The urn, man and maidens, a young musician, a sacrifice and plants and trees.
Eternal love and beauty. Something that I never have thought possible. I hope I would find it some day.
The last 2 couplet of the last stanza in this ode is very much talking about the meaning of beauty.
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,”—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
From what I understand is not to look into the depths of beauty for beauty is eternal and no one can really look into eternity. Therefore, everyone possesses beauty because beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletefatin nabila binti jasni 153451
ReplyDeletewhen i first read this poem...i do not understand anything about this poem....for me, this poem is confusing....
however, after a few times reading it... i think i get a little bit idea of what actually the poet is trying to convey.....keat wrote this poem while he is dying because of a disease, he decribes something beautiful which for me is ironic....
keat actually wants to be happy and live in a beautiful life however he did not live in the life that he wanted...
in my point of view, the poet is trying to deliver the message to the reader so that, they will become realistic...because the poet actually has faced the reality by his own... what he wanted is not actually what he gets.he only believe that the true beauty lies only in a picture or in ones imagination....meaning that we cannot take for granted of the beauty that we dream of to have...
farah nabillah (154096)
ReplyDeleteassalamualaikum..
hello madam..=)
To be honest, for the first time I glance at this poem, I feel dizzy already. Actually I don’t understand this poem much. After I searched for some information’s, it makes me more confused with lots of different opinions from other people. I am not sure of what Keats really wants to tell the reader. The title itself sounds quite scary for me because it is speaking about an “urn”, which is based on my understanding; urn is a container that we use to hold the ashes of a dead body.
From what I understand, I think this poem is about how the persona sees the urn as a historian whom can tell him a story. From the curving and decorations around the urn he slowly begins to know the story about the past time. I think he is building his own imagination with the decorations around the urn. He himself creates his own story from what he saw. Sometimes he put his imagination about a couple of lover, and sometimes he jumped his imagination to a ritual story. I admit that is not easy for me to understand this poem. Maybe it uses lots of difficult words but finally I realised how Keats really appreciates the treasure, the old static Grecian sculpture through his poem. =)
Nabillah, what are you doing here at this hour? Shouldn't you be studying for your final tomorrow? Dorothy and Sharmilla have kindly informed me that my paper is on May 6.
ReplyDeleteI know... you're taking a break from a subject that retards and perplexes your brain. Isn't it ironic that your destination has similar challenges- retards and perplexes your cognitive ability too?
assalamualaikum and hi puan ju
ReplyDeleteit's me, zulaikha...hehehehe
ode on a grecian urn.
after i read this poem, what i can tell is the urn is mysterious.
it does tell stories but the stories are never ending and it makes the poet keeps thinking , thinking and thinking what will be happening next.
the pictures on the urn their stories. the pictures also show that the they will never change and they will just as they are until the urn is broken. it reflects that life is eternity but logically thinking, life is not eternity. it just what the poet thinks. the poet is actually very happy because she/she will be always happy, do not have to think so much things, can do what she/he wanted to.
but at the end of the poem, the poet is actually stressful because he now has come back to the reality that life is not eternity and she/he will die someday and this is also same as the urn, once broken considered sold.....eh..eh...eh...it's not funny,
okay, the urn, once it is broken, we can repair it but not at perfect as before.
here, this poem is actually teaching us how life is, how to deal with life that we do not when it will end, we also must always prepared in order to have better life in the hereafter. our lives is ours and how we shape it, also according to us.
thank you,
zulaikha khairuddin (153465)
FATIN NABILA BINTI JASNI 153451
ReplyDeleteAfter I wrote my last comment on ode to Grecian urn the poem is still lingering in my brain until now. …huhu….i have a new opinion on this particular poem…I think the reason of the pesona written this poem is because he is sad about his life and he found that the reality is too cruel too him. As we know, he wrote the poet, wrote this poem when is dying and I think, this is the way of the poet to drift apart for awhile from the reality.
In this poem, the pesona keeps describing the beauty of the illustration on the urn which according to him is very beautiful . The way he describe the illustration make me think that he is actually want to escape of his reality which is not so pretty and torturing. We can see when he is describing the guy who is chasing the maiden on the urn. When the persona see this picture, he actually want to give the guy in the picture an advice that the guy will never be together with the maiden in the picture. For me, the way he wrote this poem bring the meaning that he want to make the guy in the beautiful picture of urn realize about the reality which is not that beautiful as it been pictured. I also sense that he is jealous of the illustration, when he describe about the picture of a pair of lovers who are in love with each other. He is jealous because, the love that the lovers have for each other will remain forever as long as the urn still exist.
After written and describing about the beauty of the illustration of the urn. He suddenly describing about the ritual, for me the sacrifice ritual is creepy. In those days, normally the ritual has been done to maintain happiness of the village or to request something from god. In my point of view, the ritual that he is describing represent the cruel reality. The cow which is an innocent and not so lucky creature will be sacrifice for the sake of others happiness. Foe me, he is actually picture himself as the unlucky creature which living in the harsh reality.
Hi Puan Ju! this is something that I want to add from my previous comment about this poem.
ReplyDeleteAs I notice, Ode to a Grecian Urn makes us think about how creative the poet is when he tries to portray the love using the "urn" itself.
Ya, urn is not something that we want or something that we desire for. (Obviously not!)
But, besides that, if we look closely to the structure of the urn, it is really detail-painted and was designed in a great shape.
Same goes to love. The poet believe that love will remain forever and immortal. So, he compared it to the urn.
Why?
Because urn, represent someone that has passed away. But, the "urn" is remain there. The "beautiful" sculptor is still "alive".
Compared to the love, although there is death between the lover, but the feeling between them will never ever vanish from their soul.
How on earth did he create this amazing comparison? ;)
That's all Puan Ju.
Thank You. :)
NUR HANISAH SAFIAN
152604
Puan ju until today i cant understand this poem...seriously i just looked through a short analysis and sat for the exam....i left so many blanks for the first question....my mind was numb and still numb...with this poem..
ReplyDeleteHi everyone,
ReplyDeleteWell I guess not everyone because some of you have no access to the internet. You need to take a raft through the Rejang or Pahang River, and then you need to walk barefooted several kilometers away before you reach the nearest CC.
And I guess that is why I still have more than a dozen missing voices.
C'est la vie.
Viknes,
You have the whole weekend to go over the poem again (if you want to). Try to visualize the words written by Keats and I think that will help you to begin the road of discovery.
Good luck.
Emily Yoong Ai Nee (154565)
ReplyDelete‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’…
First and foremost, I would like to apologise to Pn. Ju for the late response. Maybe it’s already overdue but I hope Pn. Ju will still accept my opinion about this deep poem.
Hhmmm…
Scratching my head and STILL asking myself, ‘What is this poem about?’
Read for the first time, second time and third time…even in the exam hall I read this poem again and again…
But I STILL don’t get the idea about this poem…
Since I came back few days ago, I always try to look for its analysis. Yeah, quite detailed and understandable but sincerely I am not fully understand this poem yet. Anyway, I hope my interpretation about this poem is parallel to what the author is trying to convey.
Ok. Stop talking nonsense. Get back to the poem ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’.
From my understanding, this is kind of comparison poem or I shall say it is based on a series of paradoxes between the real and fantasy world. Overall, Keats tries to compare the urn with its frozen images and the dynamic life portrayed on the urn, mortal versus immortal, life versus art and participation versus observation.
Do you realise that I have ‘Cap Lock’ the word ‘still’ twice above? Nope? Okay! Let’s scroll up……Okay…Done? Good!
Now look at the first line in the poem, ‘Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness’. The word ‘still’ actually has 3 meanings. First, it means ‘unmoving’ and ‘silent’ as an adjective. Secondly as the adverb, it means ‘till the present time’ or ‘as yet’. From one word ‘still’, we could see that the author is trying to differentiate between the real world which is till the present time and the frozen world which is unmoving. The urn is significant because it remains the freshness of the beauty and it is described as unmoving and silent because the urn is an object without any voice, movement or life.
The author is denying and escaping from the reality, maybe he knows he’s going to meet his creator soon, so he tries to look on the positive sides of life although he is not the one who enjoys life happily on the urn. Somehow rather he would be jealous about others who enjoy their life happily especially the lovers in a forever warm and forever young relationship. The sweet soundless pipes play is sweeter than the music which can be heard because it plays to the spirit but not typical ear. The lovers and the pipes make life wonderful and complete.
Actually understanding the author is the most important thing. We should know the purpose of the author of writing a poem by understanding his/her background. As for Keats, he knows his life is shorter than others, so he tries to express himself through the poem. That is why he loves the eternal which cannot be damaged by time. He loves beauty because he appreciates his short life. For me, Keats uses the urn to describe life because he hopes that he could stop the time and enjoy his last moment happily in this world without bothering about his health and wealth.
I think that's all from me.
Thanks Pn. Ju. =)
Dyg Nurul Ezzarina bt Abg Zainal Abidin
ReplyDelete153006
Dear Pn Ju.
Well, when I first saw the title of this poem, I had a glimpse of idea which, it's somehow related to the Greece culture, somehow related to art. Erm. This one is tough. But let's peel it one by one.
Urn. Urn. Urn. Wow. 3 alphabetical word. Yet means so much.
I think it's ironic how we sees the urn as the keeper of those who's already gone here. The urn, while maintain indestructible (unless being destructed), is actually the keeper of those who had been destructed.
The urn, while being similar, while ain't be aging, is a hundred percents different from the thing inside it that it keeps, which aging, and later is dead and destructed and be kept inside it. Yes, it's a human being.
I think that's the beauty of it all. Whilst human knows that they aren't going to live forever, they put their thoughts, their memorial in something made, like an art.
For an example, like Shakespeare, he's dead, but his art lives, over and over again, as people keep on remembering, using his poems, his plays, from time to time.
Like Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso, they're dead, but their hand made, their art, their piece of art, is still there, being treasured and consider as still alive, as long as it still being treasured and viewed.
And that, Pn Ju, is my point of view. :)
Dear, dear Puan Ju,
ReplyDelete“Ode on a Grecian Urn” is like a vineyard to the poor, puzzled person, ahem… like me. The tangling green vines may get on my nerves, but as I go as far, far away as I am able to, there is a strike of sweetness beneath the surface. Ah, the overstatement of “I THINK THIS POEM IS VERY, VERY IRRITATING!”
Yes, it was very irritating! The wordiness, my God, is like the green vines in a vineyard – all over the place! The terms, like Sylvan historian, Tempe, Arcady, Cold Pastoral et cetera, was very, very “outlandish” to me. Simply put, by some means, if my brain is a mirror, it would crack after a simple session on the poem. However, I gave the poem an attempt – I read, I read, I read and I talk about the poem with a friend of mine.
So, what is the “strike of sweetness beneath the surface”?
As I went through the poem again and again, I knew that “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is not more than a “serenade” – a term that popped on my mind – to an endless love. To comprehend the “endless love” within the poem, I came across the meaning of the title itself.
What is “Grecian”? – Greek, especially with reference to ancient Greece.
What is “Urn”? – a large or decorative vase, especially one with an ornamental foot or pedestal; or a vase for holding the ashes of the cremated dead.
The “Grecian Urn” is a work of art of the ancient Greece. Since the ancient period, no mortal could resist to bow upon the magnificence of the Grecian urn. It remains for a very, very distant time with no or less flaw. In relation to the poem, Grecian urn is the perfect image of an endless love.
P/S: Even though I need no expedition through the woodland and experience a battle with the mythical critters, I have a very, very limited access to the internet, maybe until the early of next month or the month after due to some matters. I apologize for the delayed and brief, or maybe, “gibberish” replies.
Love, Sharizan bin Sariman
152855
mohd najmi azar bin abd rahman 151690
ReplyDeletein my opinion, keats is actually telling us about the beauty and the unique of the urn. he actually shows the urn as a main subject that he believes remains forever and lives for eternity.keats is actually admiring the urn as it still remains even when the times passing by and the beauty still not fading.keats actually trying to related his love to the urn as he believe that the urn is gonna last forever.for me, i believes that the urn is a subject that seems to be the main idea about love. the urn is actually representing the love. as we can see, the urn itself actually refer to something that is mystical and mysterious which is the reason that make it such an interesting subject for keats. and when he relates the urn with love, we can find that the love is describes by keats as last and lives forever.keats trying to tell us that his love is last for eternity. nothing shall comes to separate the love and not even times.
dear puan jue, its me salam
ReplyDeleteim sorry if my writing or comments being so dry..but i'll try...
when firstly i read this poem ode to grecian urn i never understand verbally the meaning of this poem but when i try to make close reading i finally understand that Keats actually wants himself to be like the urn beauty in his own way...
the beauty that make everything so undefined..it is so calm that can make everybody smile...
Keats in his poem want to be like the urn which is immortalised in the beauty of marble..
i trust everybody in this world like and love something beauty....beauty in many way...Keats want to run away from the harsh on the truth in his own life where his family got many problem..
he always wait for the morning after the dark,, he always waiting for the light that can bring himself to the ultimate satisfaction of his life..
the reality is he never escape from this suffer..so he create many poem that can bring himself to his own imagination..
its remind me to one of movie i've watch which is the character Leonardo Dicaprio create something that can bring him to the other world which he can build anything on himself...he create a city with his wife but nothing in this world will forever immortal...somewhere somehow it will ends and evrybody in this world will die one day...
so that is my undertanding about this poem..
Choong Yar Hui- 151673
ReplyDeleteI share your sentiment that when I firstly read Ode on a Grcian Urn, my mind refused to cooperate. And yes it took me a very long time to find it more accessible.
To understand the ode further, I went online to check on how does a Grecian Urn looks like. And to my surprised, it looks completely different from how I have imagined…
When I first read the poem, I had a rough impression that the persona is telling a story from an urn. Further reading has enables me to hear the melancholy tone is his voice—the picture or scene depicted in the urn is a complete paradox to the reality. In reality nothing stays the same forever, and beauty are often not the truth (genuine). In the scenes depicted in the urn, Who, Where, or When don’t matter at all because they are frozen in time.
After studying the poem more thorougly, it reminded of a poem I read somewhere—
Time is…
Too slow for those who wait,
Too shift for those who fear,
Too long for those who grieve,
Too short for those who rejoice,
But for those who love…
Time is eternity.