ANALYSIS OF SOUND AND FORM IN JOHN KEAT"S.
In John Keats poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn," Keats paints a verbal portrait of a man looking with admiration at an urn. The speaker notices different enjoyable images on the urn. These images include a "fair youth" (line 15) whose beauty "cannot fade" (line 20) and a tree with leaves that "cannot shed" (line 21). At the poem's conclusion, the speaker realizes that although the decay of "old age shall this generation waste" (line 40), the beauty on the urn "shalt remain" (line 47).
METER AND RHYTHM.
With the exception of three lines, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is a straight iambic pentameter poem. An example of Keats straight iambic style is in the third stanza:.
"Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed.
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;.
And, happy melodist, unwearied,.
Forever piping songs forever new;.
More happy love! more happy, happy love!.
Forever warm and still to be enjoyed,.
Forever panting, and forever young;.
All breathing human passion far above,.
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloyed,.
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue." .
(Lines 21-30).
Keats's choice of Iambic pentameter gives the poem a smooth rhythmic flow. At first, I found the flow to make the poem readable, but soon I found the flow's lack of subtle changes in meter to make this poem more of a chore to read and comprehend than an enjoyment to read and comprehend. I found the straight iambic pentameter to be too familiar, which caused my mind to drift while I read the poem.
Although most of the poem was straight iambic, there were exceptions in lines 3,4, and 32. Each these exceptions had eleven syllables. In line 4, Keats writes the eleven syllabic line, "A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme." The consecutively stressed syllables "more" and "sweet" conveyed what the speaker was saying by placing added emphasis on the word "sweet.