ODE TO A GRAYSON PERRY URN

Grayson Perry as "Claire"

Greek vase - 800 - 650 BC

Grayson Perry produces pots which depict scenes from modern life, just as the Greeks produced vases/urns showing everyday scenes and themes from mythology.  Ted Turnbull has produced a pastiche - a copy with an amusing intent - of Keats' poem "Ode to a Grecian Urn", updating it for a modern reader.  Turnbull keeps to the same structure as Keats - five stanzas of ten lines with a rhyming scheme ABABCDE(DCE).  The triplet may vary between DCE/CED.  Turnbull also keeps to the same ordering of his argument as Keats over the five stanzas.  For a modern poem, not only is the form deliberately traditional, but the use of poetic techniques - alliteration, enjambment, caesura - are as much features of Turnbull's poem as of Keats'.

It is difficult to gauge the tone and attitude with which Turnbull approaches his subject.  Initially, he seems sarcastic, even rude, about the pot, the artist and the subject matter of the decoration.  The pot is a "kitschy" vase - a derogatory term for something clever and popular but lacking artistic merit - and Perry himself, with a reference to his cross-dressing, is sneeringly described as a "Shirley Temple manque" or wannabe.  The term "knocked out" suggests that these pots are made quickly and carelessly, whereas a Grayson Perry vase can sell for more than £100,000.  An explanation for this could be that the Greek vases that we see now as objects of artistic beauty were, in fact, everyday, utilitarian objects used in the kitchen to carry liquids.  They were not intended to be seen primarily as works of art, although great care was taken to decorate them. Maybe Turnbull is commenting on how our perceptions of what is beautiful changes with time. He is being ironic in referring to Grayson Perry's pots as similarly ordinary pieces, because they are created as original works of art. This is an example of  "Art imitating Life."

In stanza one, the subjects of the decoration  - modern "youf" - are similarly negatively described as "louts" and firmly placed by the lexis and reference to the Daily Express in a particular socio-economic bracket .  However, in stanza two, there is an increasingly lyrical tone to the writing, as if the poet is recognising the power of the "pot" to evoke a particular moment in place and time.  He conjures up the sound of the "motors",  ("throaty roar", "joyful throb") and the cries of their girl passengers.  The use of the word "children" suggests a more benign attitude to these young people, previously described as "louts" and "kids", although the description of their sexual exploits is graphic and uncompromising.  There is a ruefulness in his foretelling of the possible outcome of their behaviour - contracting an STD - as he, of course, can see into the future, as these young people, frozen in time, cannot. This mirrors Keats' rueful realisation that the men and women on his urn, "forever panting and forever young" will never know the pains of love as he has known.

The fifth stanza appears to return to a harsher tone, but there is a suggestion that at least the activities of these boys is life-affirming, in contrast to the "bleached tarmac of dead suburban streets" and the onlookers behind the curtains, too old or too cynical to take part themselves or appreciate the thrill. There is also sympathy in the acknowledgement that quiet streets are for those that can afford them.

In the last stanza, Turnbull, like Keats, addresses the "crock"  - an apparent return to the sarcasm of the first stanza.  However, this could be an ironic acknowledgement of the original purposes of the Greek vases/urns which were to carry liquids.  Although carefully decorated, they were not created as works of art but as everyday objects to be used in the kitchen.  Turnbull is reflecting how our perception of an object's beauty is affected by the passage of time - the mundane becomes the extraordinary with time and distance.  There is humour in the euphemism of "we're long in the box" as he acknowledges that whereas these images are fixed for all time, we are doomed to mortality.  Unlike Keats' Ode, however, Turnbull's Ode ends on a question - although the question mark is missing.  He wonders how people in the future will look back on these images immortalised on the pot.  Will they look back with nostalgia, seeing this time as one of freedom and joy, where things are not so black and white, as in Keats’ time, which spoke of absolutes like “truth” and “beauty”?  Will they think it a happier time when truth was not so easy to define and beauty was in the eye of the beholder? 

The poet seems to end ambiguously, whereas Keats’ makes a clear statement (if you accept the usual interpretation and do not dismiss it as meaningless).  The apparently judgemental attitude to the young people depicted on the one hand suggests that their lifestyle lacks meaning, and hence worth, and that a return to absolutes is preferable.  On the other, there are moments of sympathy and even tenderness, which suggests that all lives are to be celebrated and that everything is relative.  Similarly, the terms with which the pot is addressed (“kitschy”, “crock”) suggests that it has no intrinsic value – indeed, that it has less than Keats’ urn as it was not made for a purpose – and yet the poet knows how “valuable” the “crock” really is in this modern world – again, suggesting relativity and that ”worth”, not just beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder.  The poet may also be commenting on the media’s attitude to the depiction of men and women today.

It is also a comment, of course, on his own poem, as he has taken an iconic poem and made a pastiche – a humorous adaptation – rather like Grayson Perry has hijacked the Greek vase for his own subversive purposes, reinterpreting it for a modern audience.

  Ode to a Grecian Urn                   [LC1]                               John Keats (1795 – 1821)

Thou[LC2]  still unravish'd[LC3]  bride[LC4]  of quietness,

       Thou foster-child [LC5] of silence and slow time,

Sylvan historian[LC6] , who canst thus express

       A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:

What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape[LC7] 

       Of deities or mortals, or of both,

               In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?[LC8] 

       What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?

What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?

               What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy[LC9] ?

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

       Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;

Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,

       Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:

Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave

       Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;

               Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,

Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;

       She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,

               For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair[LC10] !

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed

         Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;

And, happy melodist, unwearied,

         For ever piping songs for ever new;

More happy love! more happy, happy love!

         For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,

                For ever panting, and for ever young[LC11] ;

All breathing human passion far above,

         That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,

                A burning forehead, and a parching tongue[LC12] .

Who are these coming to the sacrifice[LC13] ?

         To what green altar, O mysterious priest,

Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,

         And all her silken flanks with garlands drest[LC14] ?

What little town by river or sea shore,

         Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,

                Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn[LC15] ?

And, little town, thy streets for evermore

         Will silent be; and not a soul to tell

                Why thou art desolate, can e'er return[LC16] .

O Attic shape[LC17] ! Fair attitude! with brede[LC18] 

         Of marble men and maidens overwrought[LC19] ,

With forest branches and the trodden weed;

         Thou, silent form[LC20] , dost tease us out of thought[LC21] 

As doth eternity[LC22] : Cold Pastoral[LC23] !

         When old age shall this generation [LC24] waste,

                Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe

Than ours, [LC25] a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,

         "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all

                Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.[LC26] "

---

 [LC1]An “Ode” is a lyrical verse with its origins in Ancient Greece, where it was set to music.  Keat’s wrote five major odes. They are usually in praise of an individual or thing and then expand to reflect on a major theme – here, the nature of truth and beauty.   An “urn” is a vessel (like a vase) for carrying liquids.  Nowadays most likely to be used for carrying funereal ashes.  See the picture on the blogsite for a typical Grecian urn.

 [LC2]You – the whole poem is addressed to the Urn.  It is best to imagine you, the reader, watching and listening to Keat’s as he examines the urn and muses on what meaning it holds for us.

 [LC3]Virgin – the urn, although dating back thousands of years, remains unbroken.

 [LC4]Wedded to stillness

 [LC5]The urn is just sitting there, unused and ancient but….

 [LC6]Sylvan = woodland, pastoral.  It can tell the history of an earlier (more innocent?) time - even better than the poet can.

 [LC7]He is beginning to comment on the decoration on the urn.  “Legend” means story.

 [LC8]places in classical Greece

 [LC9]He asks a series of rhetorical questions about the decoration on the urn.  Who are these men and gods with which it is decorated and what are they doing?

 [LC10]He is reflecting on how all the people in the decoration are frozen in time – the notes of the panpipes can’t be heard, the lover cannot kiss his beloved – but she can also not grow old.

 [LC11]He is claiming that the stopping of time is a happy circumstance as trees are always green, singers sing forever, love remains fresh and full of promise and people remain young.

 [LC12]This timeless love is better than the mortal experience of love which ends in sadness, is spoiled and makes the lover feel sick.

 [LC13]He is looking at more of the decoration – possibly turning it round or walking round it – and sees a scene of a priest sacrificing a cow on an altar.

 [LC14]Drest = archaic spelling of “dressed” – the cow is decorated with flowers

 [LC15]He is imagining the people coming out of the town and following the procession

 [LC16]The streets are emptied of people and no-one can come back to explain why

 [LC17]Attic = ancient Greek (note the assonance with “attitude” meaning appearance) He is speaking to the urn.

 [LC18]Embroidered (braided)

 [LC19]Highly decorated

 [LC20]The urn

 [LC21]He is telling (the urn) what he is doing in the poem – being led to reflect on the nature of our life by looking at the vase

 [LC22]Ideas of death

 [LC23]“Cold” because it is not alive – in contrast to us and in spite of the lifelike drawings on it.  Pastoral means countryside.  The decoration is “pastoral” and this has been used to stand in for the urn itself – this is a rhetorical device called “metonomy”

 [LC24]When his generation dies 

 [LC25]It will still be here when later generations go through bad times, as a companion with a message to them

 [LC26]The urn is “replying” to Keats’ musings on mortality.  It is a quote within a quote – the “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” was written by a famous artist, Sir Joshua Reynolds, affirming the that the meaning of our lives can be seen in beautiful things – art, poetry, music. So the urn is repeating this (speaking of itself, as it were, as a beautiful object) and then saying that beauty and truth are all we have and all we need to understand our lives. 

There is considerable amount of debate about what these lines actually mean – from that given above to being absolutely meaningless. 

Hello! What's all this here[LC1] ? A kitschy[LC2]  vase
some Shirley Temple manqué [LC3] has knocked out[LC4] 
delineating tales [LC5] of kids in cars
on crap estates[LC6] , the Burberry clad louts[LC7] 
who flail[LC8]  their motors through the smoky night
from Manchester to Motherwell or Slough[LC9] ,
creating bedlam on the Queen's highway[LC10] .[LC11] 
Your gaudy evocation[LC12]  can, somehow,
conjure the scene without inducing fright[LC13] ,
as would a Daily Express [LC14] exposé,

can bring to mind the throaty turbo roar[LC15] 
of hatchbacks tuned almost to breaking point,
the joyful throb of UK garage or
of house [LC16] imported from the continent
and yet educe[LC17]  a sense of peace, of calm -
the screech of tyres and the nervous squeals[LC18] 
of girls[LC19] , too young to quite appreciate
the peril they are in[LC20] , are heard, but these wheels
will not lose traction, skid and flip, no harm
befall these children. They will stay out late

forever[LC21] , pumped on youth and ecstasy,
on alloy, bass and arrogance, and speed
the back lanes, the urban gyratory,
the wide motorways, never having need
to race back home, for work next day, to bed[LC22] .
Each girl is buff, each geezer[LC23]  toned and strong,
charged with pulsing juice [LC24] which, even yet,
fills every pair of Calvins and each thong,
never to be deflated[LC25] , given head
[LC26] in crude games of chlamydia roulette[LC27] .

Now see who comes to line the sparse grass verge[LC28] ,
to test them in Buckfast and Diamond White[LC29] :
rat-boys and corn-rowed cheerleaders who urge
them on to pull more burn-outs or to write
their donut Os, as signature, upon
the bleached tarmac of dead suburban streets.
There dogs set up a row and curtains twitch
as pensioners and parents telephone
the cops to plead for quiet, sue for peace [LC30] -
tranquility, though, is for the rich[LC31] .

And so, millenia hence, you garish crock[LC32] ,
when all context is lost, galleries razed
to level dust and we're long in the box,
will future poets look on you amazed,[LC33] 
speculate how children might have lived when
you were fired,[LC34]  lives so free and bountiful
and there, beneath a sun a little colder[LC35] ,
declare How happy were those creatures then,
who knew the truth was all negotiable
and beauty in the gift of the beholder[LC36] .

---

 [LC1]Note the colloquial modern address to the urn which mirrors Keats’ direct address “Thou.. ”

 [LC2]Kitsch = trendy, cheaply stylish

 [LC3]Shirley Temple was a famous child star of the 1930s.  Manque mean “wannabe”. Grayson Perry cross-dresses and often curls his hair like Shirley Temple. 

 [LC4]Made quickly and cheaply – in contrast to the artistry of the Greek urn

 [LC5]Telling stories – just as Keats’ vase has a “legend”

 [LC6]Notice the alliteration of kids, cars, crap – this poem is deceptively written.  It uses a modern vernacular – but is actually highly crafted in its use of poetic techniques. It is pretending to undercut the “classicism” of poetry like Keats’ but actually is showing how it is in the tradition of it.

 [LC7]Burberry is a high-end brand, very expensive, which is frequently ripped off and sold in markets as the real thing.  Hence affordable by the “louts” – young men who have nothing better to do than drive around in their “motors” – a word for “cars” which is usually used by working class men.

 [LC8]Work hard – literally “beat with a flail” – an instrument for threshing corn

 [LC9]Places of social deprivation

 [LC10]Images of modern, urban living – in contrast to the “pastoral” setting of Keats.

 [LC11]Metonomy for “roads”

 [LC12]Literally “calling forth” – a Latinate word at odds with the colloquialism used earlier

 [LC13]Like the decoration on Keats’ vase, these are pictures, not real and therefore silent and harmless

 [LC14]A tabloid newspaper which prints sensational stories

 [LC15]This stanza focuses on sounds of cars and music on the radio  where Keats focuses on pipes and music.  Note the eye-rhyme here – throaty, roar. 

 [LC16]Modern music

 [LC17]Draw out.  This is a Latinate word – again showing the poet’s debt to earlier poetic forms. 

 [LC18]Note the assonance

 [LC19]Moves on to the idea of the lovers

 [LC20]Use of enjambment and caesura – emphasis on peril  then the explanation of safety – these are but pictures, not real and so no harm will come to them.  Cv. Keats’ “She cannot fade”

 [LC21]This stanza focuses on drugs and sex.  Cv. Keats’ “for ever panting…”

Enjambment again, propelling the verse forward

 [LC22]This is an echoing of the chasing of the girls in Keats’ poem.

 [LC23]Slang for man.  The poet is using the words of his subjects.

 [LC24]Sexual reference

 [LC25]A pun – and also showing that they are fixed in one moment in time, as are the revellers in Keats’ poem

 [LC26]Pun on fellatio and being “given your head” – allowed to run free

 [LC27]They take their chance with contracting a STD

 [LC28]They are showing off their driving skills in front of an audience of young people.  It is a kind of “ritual” like the sacrifice in Keats’ poem. 

 [LC29]Local beers

 [LC30]The onlookers who are not part of this “party”. 

 [LC31]These kinds of happenings only occur in poor neighbourhoods

 [LC32]Addresses the urn, as does Keats, but harshly and unflattering.  Cv. “Fair attitude”

 [LC33]Like Keats, he is speculating on the “message” that the pot will leave when the present generation has gone.  

 [LC34]Pots are made from clay which is heated in a kiln – “fired”

 [LC35]Suggesting many thousands of years in the future (the sun is cooling). 

 [LC36]A modern take on Keats’ “Beauty is Truth”. For Keats, beauty is an absolute – just as the Grecian Urn is an absolute – but for the modern world, perhaps, definitions are less fixed.  Truth is open to interpretation and you are only beautiful if someone says you are – possibly a comment on media representation.  But it is also a comment on his own poem – having taken an iconic poem and made a pastiche – a “fake” copy.