When Keats started writing, in the early 19th century, ancient art was in fashion and Greek images were very popular. When he was taken by a friend to see the Elgin Marbles, the Urn, in particular, caught Keats' eye and he returned frequently to visit.
Both the Romantics and Victorians addressed the idea of preserving the perfect moment and Keats' "Ode to a Grecian Urn" is one such perfect moment captured in art. In the opening stanza, Keats addresses the urn, personifying it as:.
"Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness".
This personification prepares us for the impossibility of fulfilment. The word "still" highlights the anticipation of ultimately being ravished and embodies two concepts of both time and motion. The urn exists in the real world; it is physically subject to time and change and has survived many years, yet the images it depicts are unchanging:.
"Thou foster-child of silence and slow time".
The pictures on the urn are affected only by "slow time", they will live forever and remain the same. Keats genuinely appreciates the story the urn is imparting and though it is silent, he believes its images can tell the tale more effectively than his poem is able to:.
"who canst thus express.
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:".
The events occur in a "leaf-fring'd" setting of "deities or men" in "mad pursuit" of reluctant "maidens", a passionate, heated courtship scene, paradoxically portrayed on a cold, motionless urn.
In the second stanza Keats embellishes his ideas of anticipation and imagination:.
"Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard.
Are sweeter;".
He describes how although music can be beautiful to listen to, none can be as satisfying as the most perfect piece of music you can compose in your imagination. This introduces a typical Romantic notion that there are mistakes in the real world, things do not always run smoothly and hence this mental flight into the strong, perfect world of the imagination.
