Essay on Ode on a Grecian Urn

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ODE ON A GRECIAN URN:

Made-up Question: How does Keats express passion/ imagination/truth and beauty throughout ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’?

This poem explores many different techniques within the context relating to passion. Paradoxical nature is clearly evident in the first stanza and also the rest of the poem as it provides a contradicting effect of truth. The paradox ‘Bold Lover, never, never cans’t thou kiss’ indicates that the urn is silent yet tells a story. It focuses emphatically on the word ‘never’ signalizing these lovers can never kiss, express their love and can never die, but they will have the benefit of staying in this metaphysical world forever which is only accessed by the imagination. Therefore, Keats expresses passion throughout his poem by using techniques like paradoxes.

The poem further examines the idea of imagination at the end of the first stanza. This is shown through the process of rhetorical devices. The rhetorical questions ‘What mad pursuit?’ and ‘What struggle to escape?’ creates a tone of wonder with subjective imagination. Auditory imagery conflated with the rhetorical device ‘What pipes and timbrels’ reinforces the paradoxical nature of the poem. This depicts that the music is being heard yet the urn is silent. Consequently, the poem enhances the power of imagination with rhetorical devices.

Beauty is one of the most important ideas displayed in the poem. By the use of allusion it helps show the beauty within the landscape. The

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