Have you ever wondered where saying like, "He has the Midas touch", or, "You have to find their Achilles heel", come from? Ancient Greek is the root of many English words and phrases, and their culture has famous portrayals of themes and stories that are still relevant today.
"Ode on a Grecian Urn" transports the reader back in time as the narrator observes the decorations of an ancient urn. The poem uses vivid language to sketch life in ancient Greece, including music, landscapes, and romance.
The title is about someone famous in Greek history who has died.
The speaker is looking at all the pictures on the urn, and discussing them.
The speaker uses a mixture of happy and sad language, which conveys a very complicated, bittersweet emotion. He also uses a great deal of language about countrysides and plants.
The speaker seems wistful about the passage of time.
A shift occurs in the final stanza, when the speaker stops describing the scenes on the urn and writes about how the urn will endure, unchanged, even as human life moves on.
After reading the poem, I think that my title was partially correct. The poem was deeper than expected, and wasn’t about a particular person.
Some things about life are the same as centuries ago; the urn is immortal as are the images on the sides.