Ode On A Grecian Urn
“Ah, happy, happy boughs! That cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied
Forever piping songs, for ever new;
More happy love! More happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoyed,
For ever panting, and forever young;
All breathing human passion far above;
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloyed;
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.”
In stanza three of Ode on A Grecian Urn, Keats speaks of how wonderful it must be to have a life like that of those depicted on the urn – to live a life where everything is constant, and one will “remain unwearied” and “forever young;” in a land where the trees never “bid the spring adieu.” However, his tone makes the reader begin to question the greatness of such a static life. Keats saturates this stanza with the words “happy, happy” and the phrase “for ever this” and “forever that” to the point of cloying the reader. He makes this life on the Urn seem so far away from reality that it is irrelevant to our every day lives.
I also found it interesting that, while Keats recognized that human passion did not affect the “silent” urn, he did speak of it as “far above,” as opposed to “far below” or simply “far away.” I believe that this says a lot as to how the speaker views passions – and, ultimately, his ideal of humanity in general
I commented on Kaylie's "Nothing Gold can stay oh and O.o"
You have a good point. The tone of it almost makes you feel like he's trying to tell us something through irony. It's too happy. It's too goo-shy. Also, it's interesting because the urn the scenes are frozen in time,and therefore passion-less, but the scenes are in of themselves full of passion. Do you see what I'm saying?
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