Perspectives

When analysing a literary text like “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats, it is always a good idea to try and put it into perspective by looking at the context it was written in.

The literary period

John Keats wrote during the time of the second generation of Romantic English artists. While the first generation of English Romantic poets such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge revolutionised poetry by using common English and dramatically presenting common subjects such as falling in love, the second generation of Romantics was more radical. They actually used more classical topics – such as ancient Greece – and approached them from a controversial perspective. Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” has several sexual allusions which might have offended some of the readers and artists of the time.

Texts by the same author

Even if John Keats died ...