Reflecting on John Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and William Butler Yeats’s “Sailing to Byzantium”

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ENGLISH 2317-S50 (SPRING 2013) ESSAY TOPICS: JOHN KEATS AND PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY #2 Reflecting on John Keats’s “Ode on a grecian urn” and William Butler Yeats’s “Sailing to Byzantium” one can notice a common preoccupation with the themes of aging expressed in the two poems. The poems authors meditate on the topic through their interpretations of art, which they both perceive as having achieved a perfection beyond the capacity of the mortal realm. Though each piece is presented to be highly expressive of the authors shared contemplations upon aging, each speaker derives from their contemplation a different conclusion. John Keats’s “Ode on a grecian urn” (1820) develops such themes through his interpretation of the scenes ingrained upon an ancient grecian vase. In the first stanza, the author attempts to engage the vase in a line of questioning about a scene of men chasing women depicted on it’s side. As the speaker attempts to unravel the mysteries presented by the picture, he is faced with the first limitation of art; it’s selective presentation of the story leaves behind a mystery as there is so much left to be explained beyond the silent and immobile picture. Here, he explores the theme of shallow immortality for even though rendering the story on a vase has immortalized it, the recording shows only a small selective portion of the facts. In the following two stanzas, the theme is explored further as the speaker dotes over the two lovers depicted on the vase. He remarks that their love pertains a timeless quality unachievable by mortals as their love is forever paused at its peak. In contrast, all human passion is transient and concludes once sexual urges are satiated all that’s left behind is a “burning forehead,” and a “parching tongue.” (30) The lovers, however, remain forever etched in their most passionate state, never depleting their apparent desire
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