Two different poems and two different view point (2)

Ode on Grecian Urn.

Anther romantic age poet Keats saw an ancient Greek Urn, unlike Shelly, felt differently. When Shelly heard about an Ancient ruined statue, probably that of mighty Rameses II, lying half buried in sands, the thought of wastefulness of all the power and glory came to him. The destructive force of time alone came to Shelley but to Keats beauty of the ancient sculpture that endured beyond time came to his mind. The unheard melodies and the romantic chase of the male for his beholden maiden and the solemn sacrifice of holy animal and the village people who have gathered to witness the solemn occasion depicted in the urn captivated him. For him time stood still  to revel the truth that beauty is truth and truth beauty.

His poem begins with,

Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,

Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,

Keats treats Urn as unravished bride that tells us the stories of some legend or of deities or mortals. He thinks Urn as a Sylvian historian. Throughout the poem Urn leads us to the fairy tale of mad youth pursuing his lady of interest, another youth playing an unheard melodies sweetly not to the sensual ear but to the inner spirits. But our romantic lover never gets her girl or the youth never stopped playing. Yes, time is frozen on the urn. Yet another scene unfolds in the urn-that of sacrifice of a cow on the alter where in the entire village is emptied to witness the solemn ceremony.

he brings us yet another truth at the end of the poem.

When old age shall this generation waste,

Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe.

Yes, when everyone in the present generation- who reflects upon the cold pastoral theme of the ancient Urn is dead but the Urn would still be there. Art can never die. Its beauty never destroyed. That is eternal truth. Not the truth our believers and worshipers discussing about but the truth of beauty that for ever lasts.

Keats closes the poem,

Beauty is truth, truth beauty-That is all

Ye know on earth-all you need to know.

 How can it be?  Beauty is emotion? Truth is reason. From the empiricist point how can Emotion and reason can co-exist?