Shelley, Percy Bysshe - Ode on a Grecian Urn

PART I

Thou still unravished 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-

What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape

Of deities or mortals, or of both,

In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?

What men or gods are these? What maidens loath?

What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?

What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

PART II

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on-

Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared,

Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:

Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave

Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;

Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss,

Though winning near the goal-yet do not grieve;

She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,

For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

PART III

Ah, happy, happy boughs! That cannot shed

Your leaves, nor ever bid the spring adieu;

And, happy melodist, unwearied,

For ever piping songs for ever new;

More happy love, more happy, happy love!

For ever warm and still to be enjoyed,

For ever panting and for ever young;

All breathing human passion far above,

That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloyed,

A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.

PART IV

Who are these coming to the sacrifice?

To what green altar, oh mysterious priest,

Lead’st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,

And all her silken flanks with garlands dressed?

What little town by river or seashore,

Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,

Is emptied of this 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.

PART V

Oh Attic shape! Fair attitude! With brede

Of marble men and maidens overwrought,

With forest branches and the trodden weed;

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 opther woe

Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,

“beauty is truth, truth beauty”; that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

This poem is divided into two sections:

• I-II-III parts

• IV_V parts

In the first three parts the poet writes some questions with its answers; in the second section he describes the back side of a urn.

Structure and style

This poem is made up of five stanzas.Each stanza has ten lines. Lines have a regular length and begin with capital letters.In each stanza 1-3-5-8 lines are aligned; while 2-4 - 6- 7-9-10 lines are intended.There is a regular punctuation and a regular rhyme scheme: ABABCDEDCE.

In this poem there are some run-on-lines: There are also some questions and some archaism. There is a invocation and there are also many repetition.