Ode on a Grecian Urn

Many religions believe the body returns to dust as the spirit floats to God, and Greek urns are associated with death since they were often used to hold a deceased’s ashes. It is unknown if the urn of Keats’s poem was a burial urn, but like a solitary testament to life and death, the urn is silent, motionless, made of cold materials. The urn itself symbolizes the intertwining of life and death. In one scene, the urn’s etchings depict life and vitality. Images rooted in plant-life help shape the vitality of the moment as the speaker reflects that one scene on the urn tells “A flowery tale” (Line 4) and “leaf-ring’d legend” (Line 5). The poet imagines music filling the scene (Line 10), as “ye soft pipes, play on” (Line 12). The romantic scene conveys youth, one in which love and youth are undying: “For ever wilt though love, and she be fair!” (Line 20).

Contrasting this vibrant and joyful depiction of passionate youth, the second depiction portrays a priest preparing to sacrifice a cow. The poet opens the stanza with the question “Who are these coming to the sacrifice?” (Line 31), wondering about the anonymous, ancient villagers. Life and death further intertwine, since in the following line a “green altar” (Line 32) appears as well as a “mysterious priest” (Line 32).