Ode on a Grecian Urn Themes
Innocence
The urn represents an innocent world, unaffected by the suffering and hardship that come with change. The trees never have to deal with losing their leaves, the violent sacrifice of a cow hasn̵...
Transience
The people on this urn never have to deal with changes in their world. Their world is permanently frozen in a single moment. The poem contrasts the timeless world of the urn with the upside-down ho...
Wisdom and Knowledge
The speaker turns to the urn as a source of wisdom. We take it that he is feeling down on life and love and needs some good advice – and who better to give advice than a thousands-year-old po...
Sex
It’s hard to tell the difference between sex and love in this poem. Despite being a huge Romantic, Keats was a realist on matters of love: he knew that just because you want to be with someon...
Art and Culture
Few people have defended the value of art quite like John Keats. He goes so far as to suggest that the most powerful truths are to be found only in art. This has led some people to criticize him fo...