Ode on a Grecian Urn

Study Guide

Literary Devices

Tone

Save

Literary Devices Tone

“Ode on a Grecian Urn” has a tone characterized by fascination and compassion. The speaker is clearly fascinated by the urn and even awestruck at its beauty. The speaker’s awed fascination comes through clearly in the elevated language they use to address the urn in the opening lines (1–2):

Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time

Drawn in by the urn’s survival some millennia after its fabrication, the speaker shows an earnest curiosity about the images depicted on it. They ask numerous questions about the identities of the figures portrayed on the urn, and they grow increasingly engaged by the stories they infer from the images. Yet for all their entrancement, the speaker also pities the figures on the urn. Their pity first arises when they recognize what it means for these still figures to be stuck outside of time. For example, despite remaining forever youthful and fully in love, the young lovers will never be able to consummate their amorous desires. The speaker seems equally remorseful about the town left forever empty by all the people who’re taking part in an otherwise lively procession (lines 38–40):

And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e’er return.

From their distanced perspective, the speaker views these situations with an empathetic and compassionate eye.

Previous section Symbols Next section Structure