Formalist Analysis of Ode on a Grecian Urn

Meter
Ode On A Grecian Urn has a basic iambic pentameter template but many lines are altered
metrically which helps vary the rhythm and also places special emphasis on certain words.
A good example is the first line. It has four iambic feet (daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM
- unstressed syllable followed by stressed syllable) but the fifth foot is a pyrrhic, with two
unstressed syllables, which underlines the word quietness.
Thou still / unrav / ish'd bride / of qui / etness,
Thou fost / er-child / of si / lence and / slow time,
Sylvan / histo / rian, who canst / thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tem / pe or / the dales / of Ar / cady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad / pursuit? / What strug / gle to / escape?
What pipes / and tim / brels? What / wild ec / stasy?
And note the last line of this first stanza. The first and second feet are iambic, the remaining
three a pyrrhic, a spondee and a pyrrhic. That spondee is a double stress, a complete contrast
to the enveloping unstressed pyrrhics. This produces a loud bump and breaks up the steady
beat of the previous two lines.

Rhyming Scheme
"Ode on a Grecian Urn" is organized into ten-line stanzas, beginning with an ABAB rhyme
scheme and ending with a Miltonic sestet (1st and 5th stanzas CDEDCE, 2nd stanza CDECED,
and 3rd and 4th stanzas CDECDE). Keats's odes seek to find a "classical balance" between two
extremes, and in the structure of "Ode on a Grecian Urn", these extremes are the symmetrical
structure of classical literature and the asymmetry of Romantic poetry. The use of the ABAB
structure in the beginning lines of each stanza represents a clear example of structure found in
classical literature, and the remaining six lines appear to break free of the traditional poetic
styles of Greek and Roman odes.

Literary Devices
Imagery and symbolism in Ode on a Grecian Urn The ode is literally a series of images
which are described and reflected upon. The Grecian urn symbolizes an important paradox for
Keats: it is a work of applied art (urns being associated with death), silent, motionless and made
out of cold materials, yet at the same time it moves him with its vitality and its imaginative
depictions of music, passion and sacrifice. It is a symbol of beauty and of immortality, whilst at
the same time reminding human beings of just how brief their own life and passions are in
comparison.
The urn
The urn itself is referred to in a series of images:
As a ‘bride of quietness’
A ‘child of silence and .. Time’ 
As a teller of pastoral stories
A shapely yet silent ‘tease’
A friend to humanity
As a wise sooth-sayer.
The dominant image of the urn in the final stanza is as a ‘Cold Pastoral’. The phrase suggests
that although its beauty cannot fade, it cannot be part of the warmth and emotional intensity
which comes from being human.
Scenes depicted Then there are the images depicted on the surface of the urn – and it is these
which are offered for description and contemplation. These images undoubtedly tell a story,
but at this distance in time we cannot know exactly what the story is. Instead the urn and its
decorations now stand for an ideal of artistic beauty. The images are still bright and clear but
the whole civilization that produced it has passed away – and so the questions which Keats
poses about it can have no definitive answers.
The urn’s images are permanent and not subject to the death and decay that beset human
beings. The urn is outside time and therefore avoids the fading beauty and destruction to which
human lives are inevitably leading. The images suggest both the beauty of art and also its
distance from everyday reality. The trees on the urn will never shed their leaves. The people
depicted will never lose their sense of vitality; the lovers will always be young and passionate.
The fourth stanza and its image of the sacrifice prompts Keats to ask unanswerable questions
about the town from which the people have come – a town now devoid of its inhabitants.
Because life on the urn’s surface is frozen, the ‘little town’ will forever have empty, silent
streets. The image may be beautiful but its implications have darker overtones. The urn is
immortal but reminds us of our own mortality.
Synecdoche A figure of speech in which a part is meant to represent the whole. He has used
this device to express the downside of natural love as he has used the words, “burning love”
that is fever and “parching tongues” is thirst.

Alliteration When two words close together in a line start with the similar sounding
consonants, they are alliterative, which adds texture and phonetic interest to the poem. For
example:
silence and slow time.....leaf-fringed legend.....ye soft pipes, pay on....though thou hast not
thy....heart high-sorrowful....Lead'st thou that heifer lowing...Of marble men and maidens.

Caesura A caesura is a pause in a line caused usually by punctuation in a short or medium

length line. The reader has to pause for a fraction. In this poem, the second stanza has fifteen,
which means the rhythm is broken up, fragmented, so the reader is slowed down and the lines
become quite naturally more complex.
This line, 12, is a good example:
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Two semi-colons and two commas are effective and break up the natural flow.

Chiasmus It is a device where two or more clauses are up-ended or flipped to produce an
artistic effect with regards meaning, as in line 49:
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,"

Consonance Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line of poetry

such as the sound of /l/ in “Will silent be; and not a soul to tell” and /n/ sound in “All breathing
human passion far above.”

Metonymy It is a figure of speech that replaces the name of things with something it is

closely associated. Here, Keats links the man’s heart to his feelings of being “high sorrowful and
cloyed.”

Paradox A paradox is a statement that may seem contradictory but can be true, or at least
makes sense. He has used paradox in the second stanza, “Heard melodies are sweet, but those
unheard”, “Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone”, implying melodies are heard by the spirits and
not by the ears.

Anaphora It refers to the repetition of any word or expression in the initial part of
the sentence such as ‘forever’ in the first two lines and ‘happy’ in the last two lines.

Assonance When two words close together in a line have similar sounding vowels. Again, the
sounds combine to produce echo and resonance:
The second line is a classic:
Thou foster child of silence and slow time,
As is line thirteen:
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared,

Enjambment When a line is not punctuated and runs on into the next it is said to be
enjambed. It allows the poem to flow in certain parts and challenges the reader to move swiftly
on from one line to the next with the meaning intact.
There are several lines with enjambment in Keats' ode, each stanza having at least one line. In
stanza four for example lines 38 and 39 flow on into the last:
And, little town, thy streets forevermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.

Personification The first three lines use personification, giving human attributes to the urn.
So:
unravished bride (virgin bride 'married' to the urn's quietness)
foster child ( wrought from the earth by the Greek artist, long dead)
Sylvan historian (able to tell the ancient tale).

Allusion Allusion is a literary device which briefly and indirectly references a person, place,
thing, or idea containing cultural, historical, literary, or political significance to the reader or
author. Line 3, sylvan: pertaining to or living in the woods; hence, a sylvan historian records
scenes in the woods.
Line 8, Tempe: a beautiful valley in Greece, it was sacred to Apollo, the god of poetry and
music.
            Arcady: the literary word for Arcadia, in the central Peloponnesus. Zeus was born there,
in one account. The word connotes a place of rural peace and simplicity because of the ancient
reputation of its inhaitants as innocent and peaceful.
Line 10, timbrels: ancient tambourines

Metaphors A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one
thing by mentioning another. It may provide clarity or identify hidden similarities between two
ideas. The poem opens with three consecutive metaphors: the implied, rather than directly
stated, comparisons between the urn the speaker is viewing and, respectively, a "bride of
quietness," a "fosterchild of silence and slow time," and a "Sylvan historian."