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Ode on a Grecian Urn
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Ode on a Grecian Urn

poem by Keats
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Article History

Ode on a Grecian Urn, poem in five stanzas by John Keats, published in 1820 in the collection Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems.

The ode has been called one of the greatest achievements of Romantic poetry, and it is also one of the most widely read poems in the English language. The poet describes a scene on an urn that depicts two lovers chasing one another in a pastoral setting and then reflects on the contrast between the transient nature of human love and the enduring nature of art, which has frozen their passion for all time and made it eternal. But the poet also reminds the reader that the lovers on the urn are unable to consummate their passion—the price they pay for their permanence. Unlike art, life is mutable; humans are able to fulfill their love, although they are also doomed to lose it. The meaning of the enigmatic last two lines—“ ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’—that is all/Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”—has been much debated.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.