The Society of Classical Poets, a highly critical and knowledgeable website, ranks "Ode on a Grecian Urn" as the seventh best poem ever written originally in the English language under 50 lines. Considering Keats 's short, but eventful life, the question is why? Why is this poem ranked so high? To put it simply, the man who wrote this culminated many details of his life, the urn portrays many of these subjects, into a poem. Keats, through the catalyst of art and poetry, told the stories of his love of nature, the importance of someone or something to learn from, and the fear of a premature death. "Ode on a Grecian Urn" details three separate snapshots of events happening on an urn that the narrator is looking at. The narrator is looking at the Grecian urn, presumably in a museum, and while observing the urn, thoughts are conjured into his head from the 3 "scenes" or "snapshots." The first snapshot shows some men chasing women, most likely in a sexual or love pursuit. The second is a "Fair youth" sitting under a tree, playing a song on a pipe, most likely similar to a flute. Lastly, is the third "snapshot" a more grim scene, it details a priest in the midst of sacrificing a cow. All of these images may seem unalike, but they all have something in common, they 're all frozen in time, Keats acknowledges this himself. John Keats was born in London, England on October 31, 1795. His parents, Thomas and Frances, had tragic endings to their lives. Thomas, …show more content…
Ranking "Ode on a Grecian Urn" incredibly high for Keats, a man who died at 25 years old, is definitely perplexing. So how could a website rank it so high? Well, the main reason is not only its ambiguity, and correlating to many different topics, but also the fact that these topics intertwine in Keats 's life. A poet or author writing about their personal experiences is not necessarily surprising, but rather to do it so deftly at such a young age is impressive, and maybe it does deserve that rating of seventh
Flashbacks of painful experiences are demonstrated when O’Brien recalls every detail of the man that he killed, such as the star shaped hole in his face and his clean fingernails. The line, “Small blue flowers shaped like bells. The young man's head was wrenched sideways.” , O’Brien juxtaposes beauty with destruction. Here, he has found beautiful things to compare death to in order to make it less frightening.
A lot of Imagery makes the story more intense and easier to understand. Irony makes the poem lighter and gives it a more smooth
The first feature of imagery in the poem is in line six, in which the speaker states, “It takes a sky-blue juggler
The imagery is very strong and descriptive. It explains exactly what is happening when they chaired the athlete and the readers can picture an image in their head. The narrative point of view is first person because the author is presenting the story and explaining what he/ she knows about the events. The main character in this poem is the athlete because the poem is about the memories of the athlete’s victory and achievements.
The first poetic device used in this poem is imagery. Imagery is the visual and descriptive language which is used by the poet to describe an image of someone or something for the reader. In “Ex Basketball Player” Updike uses imagery to depict a dim, grimy world of the present and compare it with the brilliant, shining magnificence of Flick’s past. Imagery is used a few times in the poem. The
Regardless of this, the poem is famous for its unique rhythm and meter of poem. The poem flows very smoothly but does not have a specific poetic foot. Consonances were used to help the rhyme scheme sound more pleasing to readers. The poets diction was exclusive and out of the ordinary.
Starting at line 5 and going to line 8, Keats imagines love as something written on the night sky. He starts by personifying the sky, in line 5 he says “..the night’s starred face,” which allows him to connect the sky to a person or in this case a human emotion. He brings the emotion of love and the concept of romance into his poem in line 6, “..symbols of high romance,” and in the following two lines he shows how unreachable love is if death is to come to him sooner rather than later. By placing the love he, and everybody else, longs for in the night sky, and vast and mysterious place, he makes the journey to finding love a long hard one. A journey that could never be fully accomplished if death was to come too
Poems are short meaningful pieces of literature that can be interpreted in multiple ways depending upon the reader at hand. That is what makes a poem unique compared to other literature pieces because in a poem the author tends to use figurative language to fulfill meaning behind their work. One poem “Love is a Sickness Full of Woes” by Samuel Daniel describes the pains of being lovesick. Love can either benefit us if nurtured and cared for, but if not tended to then let loose can ultimately hurt us. As to another poem “American Solitude” by Grace Schulman describes a life of solitude being most warming to the soul to ward off loneliness.
It has an iambic metre and the rhyme scheme is a cross rhyme throughout the poem. The first stanza offers a good insight into the theme of the poem. It is built up on statements which contradict each other. '[Thick] ' (l. 1) and '[thin] (l. 2), for example, are attributes used to illustrate love in comparison to forgetfulness. However, as
The world has yet to know “its” true secrets and dive deeper under the mask of perception. Though we may feel like nature is throwing karma at us at times, we continue to honor nature for its patience. In the poems, “Ode to Enchanted Light” by Pablo Neruda and “Sleeping in the Forest” by Mary Oliver, both of the literary works share an appreciation for nature. Though this is true for both, they express their love and feelings differently. Pablo Neruda’s poem praises light as enchanting, whereas Mary Oliver’s poem personifies Earth as a motherly figure and gives off mother nature vibes.
“Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power. Poetry is bonded with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words,”(Paul Engle). Poetry covers all spectrums of life, whether it encompasses morality, love, death, or finding ones true self. When reading poetry one may stumble across pure brilliance, words so powerful they have the ability challenge the mind. Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman have that such gift, and are nothing short of illustrious.
The poem directly represented the time period it was written in. Since others that read it could relate to it, it helped them to open their eyes to all the greed and wrong-doings of their society. The contents of the poem, which mainly had to do with greed and conflict, assisted others to see their own greediness. This allowed others to understand each other more
The aspects of poetry vary throughout different poems.
It can be argued that conflict is an important part of a poem. I personally think it is a very important part. Because, this entire poem is about how society is against people. So this whole poem is about conflict. There are many different types of conflict, but the one used in this poem is Self vs. Society.
The manner in which Keats structures “Ode to a Nightingale” allows the audience to engage with the text as though the speaker moves through his thoughts spontaneously. The effect exists early in the poem when the line, “And with thee fade away into the forest dim:” leads into the following stanza, beginning with, “Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget” (Nightingale 20-21). The repetition of “fade away,” as well as the colon, gives the impression that the first thought sparks the next line, shaping the journey of the poem in the moment. The effect lends itself to the informal, conversational atmosphere of the poem, but most significantly, it allows language to convincingly force the speaker to return to reality. Describing the nightingale “in faery lands forlorn” brings him to the next stanza, dismayed to find himself “back from thee to my sole self”