逐段分析济慈的希腊古瓶（瓮）。很好看。
——贴者





Evan Stephens
December 6, 1999




Beauty is Truth: Connecting the Physical and the Abstract in Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn





The poetry of John Keats contains many references to physical things, from nightingales to gold and silver-garnished things, and a casual reader might be tempted to accept these at face value, as simple physical objects meant to evoke a response either sensual or emotional; however, this is not the case. Keats, in the poem Ode Upon a Grecian Urn, turns the traditional understanding of physical objects on its head, and uses them not solid tangible articles, but instead as metaphors for and connections to abstract concepts, such as truth and eternity. In the poem, Keats dismisses the value of physical things as only corporeal for what he feels is more substantial and lasting, the indefinite and abstruse concepts behind them.
It would be beneficial to gain a historical perspective on the poem. Ode Upon a Grecian Urn was written at the height of Keats' creative output, in May of 1819; in this same month he wrote the Ode Upon a Nightingale and the Ode Upon Melancholy. It is worth noting that two of the subjects of these odes are physical things, because Keats is chiefly remembered for his writing about physical, sensual things. Yet he betrays this attempt at classification; the Grecian urn is more than just an ancient piece of pottery which Keats values because it has in some ways defeated time ("when old age shall this generation waste / thou shalt remain. . . ", lines 46-47) and because it will never cease depicting youth and gaiety (". . .that cannot shed / Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu", lines 21-22). Keats values this urn because of the message it conveys (directly or indirectly, a topic which will reviewed later), that beautiful things are the embodiment of truth ("Beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all", line 49); that in actuality physical things are perfect metaphors for abstract things.
What is the metaphysical "truth" then, that Keats seeks to connect to the physical beauty of the Grecian urn? Webster defines truth as "Conformity to fact or reality; exact accordance with that which is, or has been; or shall be."; another description, more Romantic and fitting to Keats, is Bertrand Russell's: "Truth is a shining goddess, always veiled, always distant, never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the devotion of which the human spirit is capable.". Keats is essentially saying through the urn that truth, the conforming to facts, is the exact same thing as physical beauty; beauty is a factual attribute of an object.
An analysis of the text, searching for connections between the abstract and the tangible, would do much to elucidate this matter. The poem is broken into five parts.
The first section opens with a description of the urn as a bride, a foster-child, a historian. All these personifications are subtle linkings of the abstract actions related to those roles which Keats assigns to the concrete object, the urn. He then further reinforces this subtle link with a series of observations on what is painted on the urn. "What men or gods are these? What maidens loath? / What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? / What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?" (lines 8-10) is another demonstration; he makes the statement that what is physically on the urn is a series of conceptual things, such as "ecstasy", "escape" and "pursuit"; thus the two are inseparable.
The second part opens with yet another junction of the physical and the abstract. "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter; . . ." (line 11-12) is a clever disguising of this. Short of written music, which the Ancient Greeks who crafted the urn did not have the aid of, what exactly is an unheard melody? There is no other answer save "an abstract concept with no definite solution", and this is tied in the same phrase to the much more concrete "heard melodies". Again, the two are related by Keats. Even the descriptions are a demonstration of this: calling a melody "sweet" is more or less personification. Keats then addresses the figures on the urn directly. "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" (lines 15-17); he is again insinuating a coupling of the abstract actions of those painted on the urn with the actual physical urn, connecting them. The end of the second part states how eternal the actions of the figures are; yet, how could they be eternal without the pottery which encases their deeds?
The third section resumes where the second leaves off, which more statements on how lucky the urn is that it cannot grow old, weary, and wither as everything around it does; "Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed / Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu; / And, happy melodist, unwearied, / For ever piping songs for ever new." is an example of this. The linking in this section is identical to that of the previous; that is, he contrasts the physical urn with the abstract actions taking place on it. "For ever warm and still to be enjoyed, / For ever panting, and for ever young; / All breathing human passion far above, / That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloyed, / A burning forehead, and a parching tongue." states Keats envy that those characters on the urn will never be anything but warm and enjoying themselves, panting and young, while above the urn is a burning, parched human being which is highly anguished.
The fourth section also continues the idea of the urn's immunity from the negative aspects of time, and consists entirely of a set of queries to the urn (who, of course, cannot answer back) about the figures and their actions. "Who are these coming to the sacrifice? / To what green alter, O mysterious priest, / Lead'st thou that heifer lowing the at skies, / And all her silken flanks with garlands dressed? / What little town by river or sea shore, / Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel / Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?" is an example of the questions Keats asks of the urn. But that is not the only change in form; here Keats elaborates the scene of the picture on the urn, relating it to an entire world that lies somewhere past what is portrayed. This is the ultimate abstraction, an entire universe of unseen streets and towns past the setting on the urn. This also relates the physical world with the abstract.
The last and fifth section is the most obviously pertaining to the connection of abstract and concrete. "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" (line 49) sums up the relationships described throughout the poem.
The language in the poem is magnificent, and Keats' word choice leads to wonderful description of two diverse subjects he is marrying. Keats himself can be assumed to be the speaker, and the overall setting is unknown; it could be a museum, it could be his private study. The tone of the poem is quite interesting, as Keats seems truly awed and astonished by the urn he reflects over. His diction is rather elevated, though Keats' contemporaries considered him uneducated and inarticulate. The poem is written in pentameter, throughout, which leads to a very flowing rhythmic effect; the rhyme scheme is somewhat unusual, but Keats breaks the form with this five-part poem, so there is nothing unusual in his creation of an peculiar rhyme pattern, that of A - B - A - B - C - D - E - D - C - E. There is alliteration also in the poem; "silence and slow", "leaf-fringed legend", "Ah, happy, happy boughs" and "Of marble men and maidens overwrought" are examples of such.
In conclusion, in the poem Ode Upon a Grecian Urn, the poet John Keats uses language and the object of his poem, a urn from Ancient Greece, to link abstract actions and concepts to physical, real, concrete things, in many different ways. Using iambic pentameter, and a unique rhyme scheme, and some devices of figurative language, Keats' sets up a melodic, beautifully flowing poem which well serves the purpose he gives it. Truly, abstract images and notions are seamlessly, subtly connected to the physical world around them.


Works Cited


Hunter, J. Paul 1999. The Norton Introduction to Poetry. New York, New York.
Ode Upon a Grecian Urn, pages 323-324.