Austin, ''Toward Resolving Keats's Grecian Urn Ode

"The world of the Urn itself is a symbol of eternity" (Austin 51).

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/DerekTickle/2009/01/the_human_struggle_between_ear.html

"Grecian urns were, in fact, consecrated, originally used to preserve the ashes of the dead and to depict scenes of vibrant life" (Austin 53).

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/AngelaPalumbo/2009/01/mortality_squares_off_with_imm.html

Setting Some Standards

“Hirsch proposes the standard of ‘coherence’-the relationship of meaning to the author’s psychological and philosophical stance, to what the author is likely to mean under a particular set of circumstances. Hirsch’s second major criterion is ‘correspondence’-an accounting for all the parts of the work and their relationship to the whole.” (Keesey 48)

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JennaMiller/2009/01/setting_some_standards.html

What would a formalist do?
“At the time that Keats wrote the Ode, his life was uncertain and unhappy. It is not surprising that he imagines an eternal love that has to him none of the disadvantages of earthly love” (Keesey 54).
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/GretaCarroll/2009/01/what_would_a_formalist_do.html

“In an attempt to set up a more reliable standard of interpretation, one based on the actual linguistic situation of shared meanings, Hirsch proposes the standard of ‘coherence’—the relationship of meaning to the author’s psychological and philosophical stance, to what the author is likely to mean under a particular set of circumstances. Hirsch’s second criterion is ‘correspondence’—and accounting for all the parts of the work and their relationship to the whole.”
--From Allen C. Austin’s “Toward Resolving Keats’s Grecian Urn Ode” page 48 in Donald Keesey’s Contexts for Criticism
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/EricaGearhart/2009/01/formalism_correspondence_coher.html

"Without wrenching the syntax, we can read the final lines as 'Beauty is truth, truth is beauty' in eternity--that is all you know or need to know on earth of eternity."
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyMerryman/2009/01/on-earth-of-eternity.html

"E.D. Hirsch offers an effective way of approaching such dilemmas. In Validity of Interpretation, he suggests, reasonably enough, when 'interpretive disagreements...occur, genuine knowledge is possible only if someone takes the responsibilty of adjucating the issue in the light of all that is known.' This involves determining a general standard of critical sanity or sensibleness, identifying the various interpretations (in this case, of Keats's lines), examining the evidence relating to each (including biographical and historical), and then judging which interpretation is most probably valid." (Austin 48)

“…The Lover cannot kiss, his love will always be fair.”
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2009/01/you_cant_have_your_cake_and_ea.html

"The imagination creates what is most beautiful and its creations are a reflection of eternity: 'What the imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth.' The Ode as a whole is more concerned with eternity than with art, itself a symbol of eternity." Allen C. Austin "Toward Resolving Keats's Grecian Urn Ode"

Sensation vs. Thought...which do you prefer?
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/EllenEinsporn/2009/01/sensation_vs_thought.html

"Although we cannot establish that Keats believed consistently in eternity, we can establish that he tentatively proposes the idea and that he undoubtedly hoped for the kind of eternity he imagines." (51)
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/CoreyStruss/2009/01/beauty_and_truth.html