NCHS AP English Language

Ode to a Grecian Urn - Emily Rew

THOU still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time,

Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;

Thou, silent form! dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe

All these excerpts from the poem Ode to a Gredian Urn by John Keats explain the slow and steady progress of Lena from wagon to wagon in a neverending process.In the book it explains how Lena percieves the wagons as being almost identical and anonymous at teh same time. This is because she is set toward her goal to find Lucas Burch and all the days of traveling seem to roll into one long journey. The poem explains how the people on the urn are stuck still in time and nothing can change the actions that they are in. Just as the youth beneath the trees cannot leave what they are doing so too Lena cannot end the neverending progress of the journey and the sound of the wagon wheels on the road. Faulker says alot wiht this one statement, and seems to make the present time stand still itself. Lena has to remain liek the characters on the urn in the "midst of other woe." The journey is something she cannot escape and it seems like she will never be able to escape her traveling. The urn poem also depicts a young woman traveling which can symbolize Lena. By inserting a reference to the urn in his story and by choosing the name Lena which originates form the Greek language, Faulker somewhat elevates Lena's status.

posted by NCHS AP English Language III @ 11:53 AM