Theory question 112
Non-African PoetryLiterature 2, Section D
Discuss Keats' attitude to the Urn in “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
Show the model answer
Model answer
Admiration: addresses the urn as a bride, foster-child, historian.
Envy of its permanence and frozen happiness.
Awareness of its limits: 'cold pastoral', figures can never fulfil love.
Reverence for art as conveying truth: 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty'.
Mixed attitude: wonder, longing and some irony.
Explanation
Show how his feelings shift through the poem.