After many reads of 'Ode on a Grecian Urn', several hours of research, and a few fistfuls of stress induced hair pulling, I can say with much confidence that I still have no definitive idea what this poem is about. While the poem is clearly titled to that of a burial vase, the poem itself seemed to be more focused once again on the subject of art, its connection to humanity, and an unusual mixed symbol on the subject of immortality and death. First of all, the urn seems to be depicted in several human activities and relating to them in some manner. It’s present in what seems to be a love scene, some sort of natural composition, and a religious act. In all three scenarios it is a silent object, to be contemplated on what I assume was the immortality of art. The urn, like art, is shown to be a lasting piece of work, aging slowly and able to withstand the quick progression of time, but it is also incomplete. As all art does, it requires humanity to appreciate it and give it life of its own. Yet the whole poem makes references to life and death interchangeably. As if Keats can not make up his mind if art, in its foundations, can make any of us immortal. Art, in itself, is just a reflection of life and is not living on its own. There are also boundaries between life and art. Keats tries to use the urn to grasp the concept, or the complexity, of the human activities shown in the poem, but the urn, only a piece of art, can not fully portray these emotions. In a way, it seems Keats is saying that there is only so much of nature and life that art can mimic.
Then there is the topic of truth that Keats seems to return regularly often. He once more depicts the urn, this inanimate object and yet eternal work of art, as the container or teller of truth. I had a particularly hard time understanding this, but I believe Keats was trying to show how art, despite its inability to fully depict life’s complexities, can produce and display the bones of nature. As a human artistic construct, it can not really describe specifics but instead show the widespread characteristics of humanity, that common ground that is shared and understood beneath the skin of most. Art, although in its being is up for interpretation, can display an often grotesque truth. Keats might be saying that art as a subject can grasp the points, the subjects of a scene. Instead of flowering it up with excuses and historical dribble, it can show the scene as it was then and there, the beauty and foul nature. Art is pure, with the ability to show human activities in their most basic form. Perhaps Keats saw art as a way to get past societies or the individuals bull, and get down to the grit, or the truth, of it all.
As for the last lines of the poem, that was the most confusing to me of all the poem. It appears to be the urn speaking for the first time in the poem, giving some sort of knowledge to humanity about beauty and truth. Perhaps it is saying that there is a loveliness in the simplicity of an honest world, going back to the idea of art depicting truth. But then again, perhaps he is just saying things are beautiful because they are truthful, that humanity desires truth and beauty because these things appear as pure origins.
