The ode on a Grecian urn actually represents a paradox of romantic poetry. The theme of the Ode is the search for permanence and immortality, which for Keats can only be found in art which, unlike all human things, is not changeable. The ode is therefore the song dedicated to the beauty of a timeless artifact, that is a Greek urn decorated with classical motifs, which becomes a symbol of eternity precisely because of the power of the imagination. Two scenes are described in the text: one in which a young man tries to kiss a girl while some musicians play tambourines and wind instruments against the backdrop of a Dionysian feast; the other in which a priest is leading a heifer to sacrifice. What fascinates Keats is the fact that poetic art is able to present an ideal world by fixing its actions and gestures  in a particular emotion, which poetry renders eternal as an expression of beauty. The young man who tries to kiss the girl will never kiss her, but will wait in that immense trepidation that precedes the kiss. The beauty of the young woman, the passion of the boy, the pleasure given by the music and the blossoming branches will remain forever fixed in that instant. In the same way, the allusion to the ritual sacrifice of the animal evokes a world far away in space and time, intangible and immutable.

Page 325 Ex 1

1 e

2 c

3 d

4 b

5 a

Ex 2

a) Bride of quietness: quiet creation of ancient time

Foster - child: purity and harmony 

Sylvan historian: witness of a bucolic past

b) He claims that fantasy is sweeter than reality

Ex 3

a) For ever pipping songs for ever new

For ever warm and still to be enjoy’d

For ever painting, and for even young

b) they never bid the spiring adieu; he’s unwearied

c) sadness, sickness, illness, dryness

d) Cold Pastoral: immobility, indifference, disgust, distance

Friend to man: warmth, helpfulness, closeness

Ex 4

Meditation, transience, Arcadian, pastoral, youth, contrast, unfulfilled, unpleasant, Beauty, Truth