Ode on a Grecian Urn

The second stanza refers to a different picture that has been carved into the side of the urn. If the lines are aimed towards mankind then it means a matter that beyond all the complications and technicalities that life brings to an individual, one phrase must remain at the back of the mind, that beauty and truth are one and the same. A young man seems to be playing a pipe to his lover as the sit together beneath a glade of trees. The speaker then says: “Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss” (line 17) meaning that the two can never have experiences together. Whichever way interpreted, the metaphor employed here by Keats does contribute to theme and has much deeper meaning then the ode first conveys. The first four lines of each stanza roughly define the subject of the stanza, and the last six are devoted in a sense to analysing or developing the first four. An intriguing paradox can arise from this thought: the two are free from time, but are simultaneously frozen in time. ”(Line 27-30) Human passion is in a way directly pointed out in a sexual meaning, after sex humans are left with nothing but ‘a burning forehead and a parching tongue’ the lovers in the carving however will never have a relinquished passion for each other, they will eternally love each other with as much passion as the carving portrays to the individual.

Yet another carving on the urn is examined in the fourth stanza. These are the two lines used by Keats to conclude the speakers three encounters with the urn (1st stanza, 2nd and 3rd stanzas, 4th stanza). It is commonly argued and interpreted that it has two possible meanings, whether the statement is aimed at the urn or whether it is aimed at mankind. Melodies are undisturbed, unaffected by the boundaries of time, it will always be new because it is defined by the imagination of the individual. Here structure has helped establish meaning. The speaker complements the piper in that his melodies are sweeter than a mortal’s: “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter; therefore, ye pipes, play on;”(line 11 - 12) Melodies by mortals are definite, heard and processed by the mind. The carving remains: “forever new”, the speaker continually expresses the concept of eternal beauty, that the love shared between the lovers, the kings, queens, songs are all superior to what humans have to offer.