Post 1

Part I

I had a little bit of difficulty with this particular poem, mostly because of the language. But, based off of what I got from it, I liked it because I feel that the speaker is optimistic about things in life. Throughout the poem, the speaker looks for the beauty in the drawings on the urn. I think that's important, especially today, because we often don't take the time to appreciate simple things like that.


Part II

In the first stanza, the speaker describes the urn as a "historian" that has seen many things in times. He asks the urn questions about the pictures on it. In the second stanza, the speaker is talking to a young musician whose song cannot be heard and tells him that an unheard melody is sweeter and encourages the musician to continue to play. The speaker also speaks to a lover that cannot kiss but tells him not to grieve because her beauty will remain forever. In the fourth stanza, the speaker notices some strangers going to the green alter to sacrifice a heifer and wonders of their origins. The various pictures on the urn have taught the speaker how to seek the beauty in seemingly ugly things.
In the last stanza, the speaker thinks about all of the various pictures depicted on the urn and how they will remain there forever. Future generations will learn from it that "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" and that is all that one needs to know.
The speaker feels that the urn can teach future generations from its pictures just as it has taught him. In each of the drawings, the beauty was not straightforward, the speaker had to look for it and interpret it. The lesson learned is that in life, the beauty is always there, it's just that sometimes, it's a little more difficult to see.