What little town by river or sea-shore, Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel, Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn? And, little town, thy streets for evermore Will silent be; and not a soul, to tell Why thou art desolate, can e'er return. ... The romantic ode evolved from the ancient Greek ode, written in a serious tone to celebrate an event or to praise an individual. ... Do these simple folk come from a little town on a river, a seashore, or a mountain topped by a peaceful fortress. Wherever the town is, it will be forever empty, for all of its inhabitants are here participating i...

• Word Count: 1446
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

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. ... His tone is ecstatic in the third stanza, seeming almost to envy these images for their immortality: "More happy love! ... Keats' thoughts have becom...

• Word Count: 1153
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

As for the action, the only on-stage one is confined to the silent narration, for the narrating urn is mute and silent, and from here springs the first paradox of the scene-stanza 1 the moment the curtain opens: Thou still unravish"d bride of quietness, Thou foster-child of silence and slow time, Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme The setting, as the trend is in every scene-stanza of the play poem, comes divided into an external setting_ where the metanarrator observes the narrator in bewildered admiration, thus shedding light on the ...

• Word Count: 1325
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School