A Scratch Beneath the Surface: The Pastoral Disguise of "An Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats

Through John Keats masterful use of ode and pastoral forms, he is able to create a mask of beauty and happiness. The pleasant imagery, characteristic of the pastoral, paints a thin layer of life and beauty over what really is a dark and violent poem. Beneath the disguise of beauty, irony creates an aura of conflict between idealism and realism throughout the poem. What strikes chords within the reader of the mask is the wavering …

…that Keats uses in his language that elevate the poem to greatness. Whether it is people or poetry that tries is hardest to elevate them to an 'idealization' (conformity, poetic form, etc.), they sacrifice their own truth, beauty, individuality. Many say the form of the poem is what communicates with the reader, but it is the literary techniques and language of that the poet employs that is the true transit of ideals, truth, and beauty.