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Keats - Coggle Diagram
Keats
Ode on a Grecian Urn
The main theme of this poem is the difference between the eternal perfection of art and the mutability and suffering of human existence
The poet is addressing a classicalurn directly, trying to imagine what story each of its illustrated sides tells
One side depicts a scene with people, men or gods, playing music, and young men chasing beautiful maidens in the forest
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The unheard music will never stop, the fair youth will never abandon his song, the trees will never shed their leaves and the young lover will never reach the girl he loves; therefore, unlike real life, the young lover will always be in love and the maiden will always be fair
The other side of the urn shows people from a nearby town going to a sacrifice to the gods; since this is a picture the town they have left will be forever empty
In the last stanza the poet returns to the urn as a whole and reflects on its significance: by holding and fixing a moment of beauty and heppiness, the Urn symbolises art, which offers a refuge from time, change and decay to succeeding generations
Beauty
He was strongly attracted to art and nature and to ancient Grecian and Medieval culture which represented immortal beauty in contrast with a fleeting, and often sorrowful, present
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The physical beauty of nature and of works of art was abundantly defined in his works which offered rich descriptions involving all the senses
The joy led to spiritual beauty which through poetry became eternal and was identified with another absolute value, truth
Ode on a Grecian Urn concludes with a deceptively simple statement: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know"
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His works were immersed in the universal and eternal, subordinating the poet's personality to the evocative force of the subjects handledin his poetry