Keats Ode On A Grecian Urn

In this passage from Lore Metzger’s essay, “‘Silence and Slow Time’: Pastoral Topoi in Keats’s Odes”, the author focuses on his Intertextual Theory that all literary works ultimately relate to each other in some form or another. Metzger, in this particular essay, commented specifically on Keats’ poem, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”. After careful evaluation, Metzger established that, “Keats insisted on his right to enlarge the neoclassic canon of ‘great masters,’ to test him. When he turned to experimenting with the Pindaric ode, he evolved both his own stanzaic form and his own repertoire of topoi by testing literary models, imprinting on them his own design.” (307) Metzger’s interpretation of Keats’ masterpiece came from an intertextualist’s point …show more content…
Furthermore, Metzger believes that certain works indeed share the same themes, conventions, and traditions. In this particular passage, he explicitly points out Keats’ manner of using pastoral topoi, within his poetry, to emphasize his personal touch with literary traditions. Keats used the two-step process of incorporation and reinterpretation to find the literary meaning within his translation. Metzger notes that Keats molded pastoral topoi elements into his poem, therefore gaining meaning through reference of other texts. When analyzing Keats’ verbal rendition Metzger noticed that, “he used his poetic resources to animate a marble structure, making mute antiquity speak to him and to his time.” (307) According to intertextualists, for an author and reader it is imperative to have knowledge of the history of literature to fully understand the depths of the work. Metzger insisted on this perspective, throughout his essay, emphasizing that to grasp the true essence of a poem and be able to share that meaning with the world an author/reader must interrelate their knowledge of other works. Intertextualists believe that if this knowledge is not respected, then the results are most likely to be