My review of Ode on a Grecian Urn

楚狂

I'll just give my remarks from one point.Let's see these lines
    Thy song,nor ever can those trees be bare
    For ever wilt thou love ,and she be fair!
    Ah happy,happy boughs!that cannot shed
    Your leaves,nor ever bid the Spring adien

The beauty is condensed forever in the urn.Although thousands of years has passed, it still seemed as beautifull as before. That remains me of what Hippocarates said,Ars longa vita brevis(life is short while art is long. Mr Shepherd,can you tell me how to read this?). And if you note the drawings are painted on an urn,the constrast become much stronger. It was used to put one's ashes in! Just think, thousands of years ago, the owner of the urn, how great he might be! He should be a hero in that time.But now, where is he? He has ceased to ashes long long before, and ever his ashes can be found no more,only the urn remains the same. How shaking! When reading the poem,this word always echoes in my ears:Ars longa vita brevis!

怀抱花朵的孩子

Thank you for your comment!

Ode on a Grecian Urn
   
THOU still unravish'd 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          5
  Of deities or mortals, or of both,   
    In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?   
  What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?   
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?   
    What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?   10
  
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard   
  Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;   
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,   
  Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:   
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave   15
  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!   20
  
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed   
  Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;   
And, happy melodist, unwearièd,   
  For ever piping songs for ever new;   
More happy love! more happy, happy love!   25
  For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,   
    For ever panting, and for ever young;   
All breathing human passion far above,   
  That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,   
    A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.   30
  
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?   
  To what green altar, O mysterious priest,   
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,   
  And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?   
What little town by river or sea-shore,   35
  Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,   
    Is emptied of its 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.   40
  
O 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!   45
  When old age shall this generation waste,   
    Thou shalt remain, in midst of other 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.'   50

怀抱花朵的孩子

You can get a splendid reading of this poem

[rm]http://edu.qq.com/music/enclassic/ooagu.mp3[/rm]

[ 本帖最后由 怀抱花朵的孩子 于 2006-6-28 02:12 编辑 ]

keatslover

this is a very simplisic way of reading the great poem. as a matter of fact , the poem must be read together with the poet's poetic ,that is , his literary aspirations .