Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades:
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
so Fled is that music:?Do I wake or sleep?
May 1819 1819
Ode on a Grecian Urn1
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan2 historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
5 What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both, In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?3
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
10 What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
2
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear,4 but, more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
15 Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal?yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
20 For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! 3
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
1. Another poem that Keats published in Hay-ing phrase: is 'still' an adverb ('as yet'), or is it an don's Annals of the Fine Arts. This urn, with its adjective ('motionless'), as the punctuation of the sculptured reliefs of revelry and panting young lov-Annals version, which adds a comma after 'still,' ers in chase and in flight, of a pastoral piper under suggests? And the two concluding lines have accuspring foliage, and of the quiet procession of priest mulated as much critical discussion as the 'twoand townspeople, resembles parts of various vases, handed engine' in Milton's 'Lycidas' or the most sculptures, and paintings, but it existed in all its difficult cruxes in Shakespeare's plays. particulars only in Keats's imagination. In the urn? 2. Rustic, representing a woodland scene. which captures moments of intense experience in 3. The valleys of Arcadia, a state in ancient Greece attitudes of grace and immobilizes them in mar-often used as a symbol of the pastoral ideal. ble?Keats found the perfect correlative for his 'Tempe': a beautiful valley in Greece that has concern with the longing for permanence in a come to represent rural beauty. world of change. The interpretation of the details 4. The ear of sense (as opposed to that of the with which he develops this concept, however, is 'spirit,' or imagination). hotly disputed. The disputes begin with the open
.
90 6 / JOHN KEATS
For ever piping songs for ever new; 25 More happy love! more happy, happy love! For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd, For ever panting, and for ever young; All breathing human passion far above, That leaves a heart high- sorrowful and cloy'd, A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.
4
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
35 What little town by river or sea shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
