NCHS AP English Language

"Ode on a Grecian Urn" (Chris Fitzer and Catherine Samson)

In the first chapter of Light in August, Faulkner uses a simile to describe the way Lena appears to be traveling. She is "like something moving forever and without progress across an urn" (7). She is constantly moving towards an unattainable destination. She moves without ever reaching death ("across an urn"). Her walking seems pointless for nothing is achieved in that she is continuously walking but making no progress (like walking on a treadmill). In John Keats poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn," the narrator describes the tales that decorated the facades of this Greek urn. He depicts the friezes of Greek maidens, warring gods and men, musicians playing springtime hyms, and small desolate towns on hills rising from the sea. Faulkner particularly refernced the lines "THOU still unravish'd bride of quietness, / Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time." Lena is this bride of quietness in that she walks towards her destination to deceive others into believing she is a resident of that town and not someone running away to or from something. She is the child of slow time, making her almost forced to obey the rules of time (being her parent). She seems to be making no progress, trapped to follow the unbending rules and laws time has set forth. Furthermore the lines stating "Will silent be; and not a soul, to tell / Why thou art desolate, can e'er return." also seem to echo the same position Lena is in. She, by her own souls choice, has chosen to remain silent on the subject of her baby and its father. She is unable to speak about why she is making this journey, and why she can't seem to go back home. She is in desperate search for her baby's father, in hopes that for some reason he might be compelled to help her in this situation. Being the daughter of silence, she does not tell people where she is headed but rather appears to avoid social contact, for she knows that she, according to her soul's desire, cannot reveal her motives. Lena now makes her way, seemingly without progress due to slow time, towards her destination without even wispering "why she is desolate."

posted by NCHS AP English Language III @ 9:13 AM