Not by Choice

I found “Ode on a Grecian Urn” quite interesting, and not just because I have often found myself in conversation with inanimate objects...

When I read the first two lines, my first thought was the fact that both a bride and a foster-child live in situations they were not born into. Stepping away from the “unravished” thing for a minute, I think it is also important to note that the bride is being introduced to her life by marriage, and she probably didn’t choose the person she has married or is going to marry. The foster-child is also in a situation that he was not born into and did not choose for himself. Back to the fact that the child and the bride represent the urn, the urn did not choose to be created or designed with the pictures, but it is still beautiful and tells a great story.

This is where I may be stretching things a bit, but when I thought about all of this, I immediately thought about how many times I’ve found myself in situations, especially bad situations, that I didn’t choose for myself. Looking back though, the times in my life that have had the greatest effect on me as a person are the ones I would have never chosen to experience.

In line 49, Keats claims “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” but is that all one really needs to know? I don’t know what type of material the urn was made of, but I’m guessing it was some type of stone that had to be carved or shaped into what it was to become. The beauty was not immediate. It took some time, and probably even a little suffering on behalf of the artist. By that same logic, truth is beautiful, but sometimes finding truth isn’t a beautiful journey.

P.S. Posted on Anna Rhode's "A Bird, A Dog, and Humankind"