INTRODUCTION

In discussing Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” as a Romantic poem, it is necessary to

throw light on Romanticism. Romanticism is a philosophical, ideational and literary

movement that swept across Europe in the 18th century. It started as a political movement in

France when King Louis XVI was beheaded on account of treason. This nostalgia for

freedom quickly went to Germany where it became a philosophical movement. Philosophers

like Immanuel Kant, Johann von Wolfgang, Heinz Schilling quickly adopted the cry for

freedom. The wide fire quickly spread to England, it was a literary movement which was

quickly adopted by Thomas Paine then Mary Wollstonecraft and Richard Price, amongst

other philosophers.

When this movement appeared in England in the late 1780s, poets saw it as an

opportunity to rebel against neo-classical ideals which include writing in a grand and

eloquent language and about rational things. Since majority of the Romantic poets were

majorly against the norms of neo-classicism, Romanticism became an escape to air their

nostalgia. William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron,

Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats are among the canon of this movement. The poetry of

John Keats makes a very interesting part of this movement. Using the poem “Ode on a

Grecian Urn”, the idea of Romanticism will be enumerated as follows.

John Keats is known as one of the greatest amongst the younger generation of

Romantic poets, Keats studies apothecary and this is reflected in his poetry. Keats’ trajectory

of Romanticism celebrated eternity, stillness, escapism, love, freedom and fancy. Of all,

escapism is the most notable as found in the “Ode on the Grecian Urn.”

Escapism is a consequence of Romanticism and it bothers on the flight of fancy, a

vivid and powerful imagination which can transcend the mind from the realities and pains of

life. John Keats is notorious for this because of his hereditary disease that killed at the age of

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27. In the poem, “Ode on the Grecian Urn”, the poet persona sings of the beauteous forms of

things, the ecstasy of immortality such as that of lovers, communal catharsis, mythology and

other allusive images. The poet persona is lost in a reverie of immortality of the Grecian Urn;

he relates the impossibilities of his life with the eternal impossibilities of the Grecian Urn.

The lovers in the Urn that are bound never to consummate for eternity even though they both

see each other, this is a clear illustration of the universality of poetry.

Like of the ‘Keatian’ poems, ‘the fancy cannot cheat so well,’ the poet persona

reaches the peak of escapism and after the catharsis, he tolls back to himself and to the

realities of life, the impermanence of life and the futility of escapism. ‘Forlorn!’ John Keats

represents the younger generation of Romantics that hymns the futility, impermanence,

change and freedom of existence as encapsulated in the European Romantic tradition. John

Keats has successfully used idealization, romanticization, simple diction, isolation and

inspirational vision to echo the true Romantic ideals.

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 Romanticism in the poem “Ode on the Grecian Urn”
The poem was written in 1819 and it is a highly descriptive poem which describes a

Grecian Urn in a flight of fancy. The structure of the poem is divided in 5 stanzas and each

having ten verses. The poem as aforementioned is that of idealization and romanticization,

the poet persona imaginatively travels with the reader into the ideal world of the Grecian Urn

where certain imprints are left for the persona cum reader to decipher in other to appreciate

the whole aesthetics of this poem.

One of the major elements of Romanticism in the poem is the lack of convention for

time and space, in the ideal utopia of the poet’s imagination, spatial and temporal setting isn’t

taken into cognisance. This is not only a feature of Romanticism but it has a particularization

on the poetry of Keats. Through Keats’ aesthetics of poetry, he brings to life, scenes painted

on a 2,000 years old Urn and together with the spirit of the artist who created it. This is

reminiscent of the Romantic “Spirit of the Age.”

The poetry of Keats has the quality of movement and action, Keats describes the still

life painted on the Urn as if it is still living. Keats makes it as though he is watching the

scenes play out to him as he spins the Urn. Movement and action can be seen in Stanza 2,

Verses 1-4 of the poem as quoted below

“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;

Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared,

Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone”

As can be seen from the above quotation, the present tense of the poetry, the strong

sense of visual and auditory imageries adds life and dimension to the poem which

consequentially makes it a universal appeal.

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 The poetic diction and style of Keats is fairly simple and can be grasped if followed

rhythmically. This is characteristic of “Keatsian” poetry. Once again, with referent to the

above quoted stanza, one can see/hear the simplicity of style, the continuum of rhythm and

the intensity of imagery.

Keats, like other Romantics, possesses the spirit of Romantic truth and beauty which

is displayed through their art. The usage of created things as found in nature, in their poem,

makes the reader come closer to understanding truth and perfection. The ancient Urn is a

Greek artist’s attempt to understand truth, perfection and permanence which Keats refers to in

the last verses of his work as quoted below

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

The above quotation from the poem refers the reader back to the state of simplicity or

the Hobbesian state of nature where beauty is the only truth in nature and the only truth in

nature is beauty. This is the utmost quip of Romanticism.

The nostalgia for the past is also seen in the poetry of Keats. In fact, the Urn itself is

an accolade of the past and by Keats’ ode to it, evocations from the past can be defended as a

feature of his poetry. The ancient allusive imageries in the Urn are all reminiscent of the past.

This marks out his poetry.

As aforementioned in this discourse, escapism is a very important feature of

“Keatsian” poetry. This is found in all his poems but a stanza from the “Ode to the Grecian

Urn” will be taken to defend this postulation. The following verse will be examined closely

as an escapist tendency, “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.” The

escapist world of imagination can be seen when the ‘unheard melodies’ which is not an

empirical phenomenon becomes sweeter than the melodies we are likened with. This shift

into the imagination is where the whole corpus of escapism lies.

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 Another characteristic of Keats’ poetry is his imagery of passion, imagination,

mystery, inspiration and nature, amongst others. Keats employs tactile, visual, auditory and

even sensory imagery to express his mind state. This is clearly buttressed in the following

verses 1-5:

“Thou still unravished bride of quietness!

Thou foster child of silence and slow time

Sylvan historian, who canst thus express

A flow’ry tale more sweetly than our rhyme

What leaf-fring’d legion haunts about thy shape.”

The visual imagery of the first verse and other following imagery in the verses all

culminate to defend the assertion of “Keatsian” imagination.

Another important aspect of Keatsian poetry is the use of symbolism which is a

prominent feature of this literary movement. In Keats’ poem, garland of flowers and leaves

symbolises nature, a nature that’ll always be there as it is frozen in time. This nature is an

aspect of ‘Keatsian’ idealization of immortality. The Grecian Urn symbolises the eternal

virtues of truth, beauty and goodness as found in nature. The loss of spatial and temporal

setting forms the bedrock for the aesthetics of this period.

Keats also uses a lot of phrases as do all Romantics. This copious use of phrases can

be seen in the extract below from stanza 2, verses 17-20:

“Bold, love, never, never canst thou kiss,

Though winning near the goal-Yet, do not grieve;

She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss

For ever with thou love, and she be fair!”

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 The extract above is an example of the use of phrases, each with its independent

meaning.

The thematic preoccupations of Keats and his contemporaries include although not

limited to emotion, passion, nature, ecstasy of immortality, the futility of reality, copious

mythological devices, the long ago and the far away, etc. This point is found in all of Keats’

poems including “Ode on the Grecian Urn.” The use of the long ago and far away can be seen

in the use legendary characters and ancient artefacts. This is not surprising as the second love

of the Romantics after nature is arts. The Parnassian concept of art, leconte de lisle, can be

defended in their poetry as art is done for art’s sake and bears no burden to the condition of

man is a realistic society. All these bear the burden of the Romantic’s nostalgia.

The quintessential feature of Romantic poetry has been reserved as the last point. This

is the euphoria that rebelled against Neo-Classical ideals and beliefs. This is evident from the

spontaneity of their writings, the freedom from all clutches of poetic and imaginative

restrictions, the general shift from communal catharsis to private esotericism, the shift from

the court to the rustic life. The poetry of Keats and other Romantics can be seen as the

alter/native tradition of British literature.

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 CONCLUSION

All that can be said within the confines of this short work have been said. This brief

discourse has outlined the basic features that mark the socio-historical background to

Romanticism and with a particularisation on Keats; some peculiar features have been

addressed. “Ode on a Grecian Urn” has been appreciated to some degree under the rubric of

idealization, romanticization, escapism, rustic or pastoral trajectory, amongst others and

textual references have been provided to defend any assertion outlined here. One can only

hope that the aim of this discourse is achieved.

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