Reflection with my Critical Friend on "Ode on a Grecian Urn"

PART ONE

Task 1 (Critical Friend: Jaz Larreta)

A) The making of the urns helped on the understanding of the poem. In the first place, it directly expressed through drawings the images Keats' included in each stanza (Including his own synaesthetic images), bringing to reality the images we had build with our own imagination. Secondly, through these drawings, language was also explored and analyzed in a deeper way, depicting every aspect of the ode. In the third place, metaphors were portrayed with the help of these representation of the images, helping on the understanding of them in a more dynamic way. For example: "What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?", this quote was illustrated as woman running (Escaping), and in this way the metaphor was explored and worked for it to be understood better.

B) Is Keats' reflecting on his own coming of death? (He was already infected with Tuberculosis)

    Is he allucinating? What is real and what is not?

C) - Group Work

     - Patience

     - Efficent Communication (Listening to others)

     - Creativity

     - Division of tasks

     - Correct use of time

Understanding Ode on A Grecian Urn

STANZA TWO 

In lines 1-4 I contrast the ideal (in art, love, and nature) and the real - the "heard melodies"; which does my speaker seem to prefer at this point? How can you tell?

The speaker prefers the unheard melodies, the musicality that the urn conveys that can´t be heard but is imagined by him. He seems to prefer what he fantasizes about the urn than what is really there. The speaker uses his imagination to reflect upon the urn and give a more deep and descriptive idea of it instead of sinply staying with the description of the simple urn. The urn is static but what he creates in his mind is dynamic. He gives vividity to the simple urn. I can tell becuase it says "those unheard  Are sweeter", he believes that what you imagine is better thet what you can hear.  At this point the speaker is reflecting upon reality and imagination, he seems also to idolize the urn in some way. 

Is the idea of unheard pipes an oxymoron?

Yes, because the pipes make sound and "unheard" implies silence.This two contradicxtory ideas are contrasted to reinforce the idea of the melodies. There is ambivalnce in this case, between what the speaker can really see and what is in his head. 

In lines 5-10 we begin to sense a negative undercurrent to the ideal, to frozen time. How do I use language to help convey this negativity?

John keats uses the language to convey it negativity. For example, when it says "trees be bare" it is reffering to a tree with no leaves, and the lack of life. This can be a reflection of the speaker upon his own life and how it is empty, his own frustrated life. The repetition of the word never reinforces the negativity and frustration of his love life. Also there is repetition of the word "not". In this part of the poem time is frozen,the speaker doesn´t convey the same idea than in the first lines where there is vividty and a great use of his imagination instead there is stillnessandstatic images. In this part there is a pessimistic point of view of view of life.  

Ode on a Grecian Urn

Making of a Creative Urn 

La Belle Dame Sans Merci (or the Beautiful Lady without Mercy)

The place mat:

The painting:John William Waterhouse: 1849 to 1917, he was born in Rome and his father was a painter. In the beggining he inspired his paintingd on Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Frederic Leighton. In the last years of his life he suffered from cancer until he died, but he contiued painting. 
The painting reflects different aspects of the poem. It portrays the tragic love story, in which the lady is usinge her hair to bring him close to her. In her hand it can be seen that she is pushing him close to her as if she was trapping him. She is really pale and it looks as if she isn´t even real, while he is really tan like any human. It seems as if she was lifeless, in her face the feeling of sadness can be portrayed and enchanting in the same way. In the backround the nature that is present in the poem can be seen; "and the harvest´s done". The lady and the knight seem to be united to the nature, since her hair seems to blend in with the backround and his hand is grabbing a branch of a plant which unites him to the landscape. It suggests how in our lives humans are connected to nature. One of the main themes of romantic literature is nature.

 John William Waterhouse, made in 1893   Henry Meynell Rheam, "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" 1901
 The second painting reflects the ending of the poem, how she leaves him in despair laying on the floor. The two paintings seem like a sequence, since the painting by waterhouse portrays the way in which she enchants him. In both there is a strong presence of nature. There is more light in the second painting and this can highlight the clarity there is in the end that she is leaving him alone. While in in the first one there are more shadows which can show that the knight still doesn´t know that she will leave him. In the first painting the nature is vivid,alive and powerful while in the other the nature is dead,it seems to be the winter and that it forshadows death, the death of the knight.  I believe the two paintings together give me a better understanding of the poem. 

SOURCES

http://www.np.ac.rs/yu/preuzimanjasve/nastavni-materijal/filoloske-nauke/engleska-knjizevnost-4/753-introduction-to-romanticism/download

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/books/08book.html?scp=1&sq=stanley%20plumly&st=cse

http://www.poemhunter.com/john-keats/biography/ 

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5784

POETIC BALLAD

A poetic ballad is a poem that has a song-like style, they could be related to children since poems for them are written in that style. Also it has some characteristics that define them; like simple language so that it can be understood by anybody. Also they have repetition, usually they have refrain that is repeated along the poem, and it is story-like since it tells a story and it is narrative, it includes multiple characters. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdfiCPx7sewc

His Imagery

Synaesthetic Images

 The synaesthetic images are when the different senses are combined. It is when the visual, tactile, auditory, etc. senses are merged to form one image.  It was repeatedly used by John Keats to portray the unity of the world, to show that everything is linked together in some way and to create a sensual effect."Isabella; or, The Pot of Gold" And TASTE the MUSIC of that VISION pale. (stanza XLIX)In this line, the three sensory images that are combined are sight, (vision pale), sound (music) and taste (taste). Therefore the synaesthtic image created is composed of a visual image, a sound image and a taste image.