Comparing Ode On A Grecian Urn And The Day Lady Died

Time, as exemplified by “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” by Jon Keats and “The Day Lady Died,” by Frank O’Hara, both explore the value of using time to leave a mark and allow generations to relive it through out, however Keats poem represents images of stillness and of silence versus O’Hara’s poem which fixates on the rush of time. It no longer exists in the original circumstance in which it was creating, by some artist because it is made of stone, the urn is essentially an eternal piece of art, exempt from the effects of time or at least it is the child of “slow time” (Line 2) meaning it decays at a different rate than the rest of the human world. The first stanza of “Ode to A Grecian Urn” Keats is fascinated by how the images on the urn are captured
“Beauty is truth, truth is beauty.” (Line 48) The beauty opposed to time, that damages everything, Keats loves the eternal and the Urn is the true representation of eternity. The urn presents a set of messages and together these messages can be identified as truth- or conclusive notion take away from images of life that function as a component on the nature of life. The stillness of the art conveys human knowledge and insights better than any other conveyance of meaning such science, or perhaps even music. The urn is depicting human life in various stages and engaged in various tasks. The youth and joy and sacrifice, and religion are all represented. Furthermore, these ideas are presented in such a way as to main their mystery and by not speaking and maintaining allegiance to the silence “ thou still unravish’d bride of quietness” (Line 1), the urn is articulating both the substance of life and more the mysterious
Keats is looking at a different part of the urn that has a different picture one it. . Here he sees an image of a young man playing a pope, lying with his lover beneath a glade of tress. The speaker here says that the piper’s “unheard” melody’s are sweeter than to a mortal’s ear or melody, because they are unaffected by time. The two lovers depicted on the urn are stuck in a perpetual state of youth, he feels happy that they remain untouched by the cold and encompassing hand of nature and will not grow old and die like mortals. The piper songs will be “for ever new” and joyful that the love of the boy and girl will last