Why is the urn “a friend to man” (line 48)? Because it always reminds men of the possibility of escaping from their earthly reality into the eternal world of art and beauty.

The two correct answers are actually: Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought As doth eternity: Cold pastoral! When old age shall this generation waste, Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe.

The tone of “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is part melancholy and part wonder and praise. Melancholy is seen in Keats comparison of the urn’s engraved scenes of nature to the earth’s real scenes….

1. The Sylvan Historian refers to the way in which the urn tells the tale. “ Sylvan” means, by definition, Inhabitant of forest: a person, animal or spirit that lives in a forest. This implies that the Sylvan historian, who is located and familiar with the woods, is best fit to tell the tale.

Keats calls the Grecian Urn itself a “Sylvan historian.” On the urn is a painted record of some ancient ceremony. Because it holds this record, it is a historian of sorts….

The urn is described by the narrator as being representative of a couple different things: a virginal bride and a foster child. The imagery on the urn represents more than a work of art for the narrator; it represents a teller of tales, a wisdom giver.

: not ravished Thou still unravished bride of quietness …— John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn unravished land Of course, not everyone is appalled at the sudden quiet that settles over a house without kids.

The speaker calls the urn a ‘Cold pastoral’ because, although it depicts a vibrant pastoral scene, the people in the painting are without life.

Truth is beauty. This philosophical statement means that the real beauty of a thing lies on its permanence and that there is only one ultimate beauty in this world is truth which never perishes. The remaining, though they seem to be beautiful, is not really beautiful as they are perishable.