Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn

(Note that analyses can vary widely, hence these annotations must only be used in conjunction with your own analyses).

Annotations of Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn by Tim Thurnbull.

 

Summary of the poem:

Title: Intertextuality — Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats.

Tone: Narrative, 3rd person POV.

Summary: At first, the poem seems to look down on these irresponsible youth. Yet towards the end, the narrator seems to sympathise with them and call them ‘children’ who seem more alive than the rich and upper class. Hence, the poem seeks to connect the readers with those at the fringes of society.

Structure: Written in iambic pentameter, rhyme is ABAB CDECDE or CDECED, Miltonic sestet. Form is traditional, but language used is contemporary/slang. Contrast. Use of enjambment, adds to fluidity and sense of looping? Time freeze.

Themes: Contemporary issues, youth vs adulthood, societal problems, perception vs reality, exterior vs interior, classism,

Devices used: exclamative, rhetorical question, monosyllabic alliteration, juxtaposition (brands vs lifestyle), consonance (rrr sounds), medial caesuras, pun on ‘ecstasy’, irony, plosive sounds,

Links to other poems: The Deliverer (contemporary issues), To My Nine-Year-Old Self (youth), Look We Have (intertextuality)

Advertisement