One of the poems that speak richly about art and nature is Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats. The poet uses nature as a framework within which he aims to explain art, eventually bringing the supremacy or superiority of ideal art over nature.

This framework and the theme of the superiority of ideal art over nature are shown right from the beginning of the poem. To illustrate this point, Keats starts with praising art and then using nature to express the beauty and supremacy of art over nature.

The writer begins his poem with beautifying the urn, and he claims that it has not yet been ravished. This means that its beauty has not yet been destroyed. However, it remains silent to others like the poet to tell its tale. Since its beauty is inexplicable, nature is introduced to help in explaining the beauty of the art piece.

Keats introduces nature as the basis of art in his third stanza after introducing art. This further reveals the respect he has towards art and underlines the supremacy of art over nature. He describes the urn as being flowery and sweet. This shows that the urn has been placed outdoors or it has been framed on leaves and flowery pattern.

Keats continues to beautify the urn through nature by asking himself various questions. “What leaf-fring’d legend haunts about thy shape,” he asks. In this case, Keats wants to know a beautiful thing that can be expressed using a leafy motif. This adds to his earlier utilization of nature in expressing art, since from leaves people get flowers.

The poet uses nature to explain that art does not end in the first stanza. Instead, it continues to the next stanza. In this case, Keats introduces sweet melodies that are unheard to continue his beautification of the urn. At this point, Keats introduces some scenes, describing them as real places or events that can be seen in nature. He imagines unreal places combined with imaginary melodies as he admires the beauty of the urn.

Keats’ imagination is further revealed in the next stanzas by mentioning that a mysterious musician lies beneath the trees. In this case, the readers understand that the urn is the one likened to a real place. Just like nature, art will never be bare since it will never be without leaves. These descriptions are carried on to the next stanzas by celebrating the fact that art will never shed its leaves. Just like a tree branch, an art piece will never change. Unlike other stanzas, this stanza seems to place art and nature on the same level. The whole scenario leaves Keats a happy man since art, like nature, cannot change.

Moreover, Keats keeps on with his comparison by adding springtime to his beautification of the urn. Unlike other seasons whereby trees shed their leaves, Keats points out to springtime as his season of choice. In this season, trees are always green. Art in this case is seen as unending and unchanging. Unlike nature that has different seasons, art has only one season, which is springtime, whereby everything is always green and will never change. This reality makes Keats happy and optimistic, which he expresses in the next stanzas. In conclusion, in the poem Ode on a Grecian Urn, John Keats uses nature to explain art. This is achieved by placing art at a superior level than nature in a bid to reveal the ideal of art.

The article was anylyzed by Rita Reit, an academic writer at the custom lab report writing service.