mply, who were its original parents? The phrase "Now he belongs to the ages," comes to mind here. The words, "slow time" seems so exact in describing the urn. After all, the urn is matter and is no more immortal then man. Time may not stand still for it; however, as with anything immortal, time shall move slower. Keats speaks of the urn as a "sylvan historian who canst thus express / a flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme" (3-4). He projects the urn as a historian forwarding tales and knowledge to us from the ages extended past. The urn has frozen lovely moments of history from the erosion of time.As the second stanza begins, Keats once again projects the stories told by the urn as timeless. "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes play on;" (11-12). Unheard melodies may contain an infinite number of notes. Thus, to whoever is listening, each hears a different sound, a sweeter sound. Though it may be different in tone, it is always the melody that pleases each individuals ear. Measurements as we know them no longer exist. The urn to be is apart from the constant flowing stream of time."Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave / Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;" (15-16). Keats describes two figures on an urn as a pair of young lovers beneath some leafy trees. The trees will forever shade these lovers, and their love song will play on in an infinite duration of time."'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,'' that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know (49-50). These last two lines have been those of the highest controversy in all of Keats poetry. The controversy being: Is this brilliance of a failure. "Although the line, 'beauty is truth and truth beauty' is nonetheless a brilliant failure I believe that the poet tries to say too much" (64-65). Patterson observes that 'it was simply written different than "To Autumn" and "Ode to a Nightengale." It...
