Ode on a Grecian Urn

Based upon the conversation poems “Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats and “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the extent to which poetry and perception resolve isolation captivated the two Romantic poets, permeating their work. While through their respective poems both Keats and Coleridge explore the power of poetry to transport, Coleridge’s speaker experiences a journey that renews his appreciation for nature and others around him, while Keats ends his journey in…

The Book of Kells is not only a book of gospels rich with information that could be studied to understand the theological aspects of north west Europe in the 8th century, but also as a wonderful and fascinating work of art. Also known as the illuminated manuscript, this piece of art gives us such great depth and insight into early Christianity and the creative expression of the monks in the said era. This essay will explain why this manuscript is of such great importance to the art historian.…

Ode is instead a work of melancholic introspection, questioning the nature of death - indeed, the narrator imagines himself to be dead, as the sod (i.e. earth) beneath the singing nightingale (citation). This interpretation of the poem becomes even more…

In “Bright Star by John Keats, and “Choose Something Like A Star” they share the subject of stars, the use of apostrophes and changing opinion on the star. The differences that they have are in the themes of each poem. In “Bright Star” by John Keats the theme is that people don’t last forever like stars, and so they should live in the moment instead of trying to be around as long as possible to observe things like the stars. The fact that people don’t last forever like stars is acknowledged by…

Although having lived a very short life, John Keats is arguably one of the most remarkable poets that the Romantic Era produced. His poetry explores the human condition by asking deep philosophic questions. Written in 1819, the poem ”Ode on Melancholy," captures many complex emotions, and focuses on the intertwined connection between joy and sadness, hope and disappointment. He reasons that in order to fully experience and appreciate one, we must also experience the other. Only if we can truly…

Perfection and Reality It is difficult to imagine a perfect world. So many parts of life can only be perfect for a moment. In a poem by John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn, a perfect situation is frozen in time. Throughout life at the Naval Academy there are certain moments that seem as though they would be perfect. Climbing the Herndon monument starts as a dream for plebes. The Herndon monument is a granite obelisk that is located in the middle of the Naval Academy campus. At the end of each…

things in their truest forms, all experiences appear to be a mixture of inseparable yet irreconcilable differences, Keats finds melancholy in delight and pain. This is shown through the Odes, ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ and ‘Ode to a Grecian Urn’. ‘In Ode to a Nightingale’, there is a languid feel to the poem, and is full of lively oscillations in tone and mood. The narrator is pulled in conflicting directions: now towards death,…

were more interested in working long hours and earning a living. Poets like William Wordsworth and John Keats used their literary works to rebuke society and the industrial movement in their poems such as The World Is Too Much with Us, and Ode on a Grecian Urn. In William Wordsworth’s poem The World Is Too Much with Us is his response to the diminished belief in faith and spirituality. The second line in the poem addresses this “Getting and spending,” (Wordsworth, line 2) brings light to how…

physical thing, each of which will stay longer than the creator will. Throughout life the things made and the memories will eventually fade. People forget who and what was done, but leaving physical things behind will prolong the process. In Ode to a Grecian Urn John Keats explains, “Beauty is truth, truth is beauty,” (line 49). This explains that the truth is will be everlasting. Lives will go on without a person, but their legacy and physical feelings and things will stay…

Resembling John Keats in, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Humbert Humbert, from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, envies the past innocence and youth that transforms overtime into a relationship of disenchantment, disillusion and destruction with a child. Through textual evidence, one can see that Humbert’s desires for the past love affair with Annabel, his young counterpart who dies before their consummation, manifests into a relationship with Dolores Haze, a young girl who resembles his young past lover. Time…