之前有一位童鞋留言，说想看英文稿的阐释，就将存货一并汇整了一下发过来～本来是想不再发纯英文稿了的，觉得没意思。我跟友朋聊天时说，刚初始写阐释时，会习惯用援引来连缀语句（尤其是长篇），因为尚不能融汇、击撞出自身可靠的观点；现今有些勇气用观点来捭阖，再适度增入引用了。就是偶尔有怕自己变得opinionated的忧虑。
部分重要的解析还见参考，因为塞入原文会显得比较冗赘；还有是怕影响到观感，不愿像一片满布脉络的胎膜一样使人眼花缭乱。我会觉得某些浪漫派的诗有难以弥散的悲感，因为a knight’s memorable love capable of marital prowess貌似不复见了，到后来更多是失衡、且失堕的鬻文以赎命。有时候极致的善、美不能被触及，更多倚重的是人求索时的感触、及经得住犹豫和迷惘的能力，而非一个确凿的答案。通常，在修辞的叠缀与变形中，读者和创作者挣脱了现实的利害关系、伦理道德约制，可以超脱自我地感受恐怖、憎恶、痛苦等经历，免于患得患失，世俗意义的“脆弱”便能升华为“不朽”。顺带一提，诗最后两句比较有争议，我个人倾向于理解成对现实“美”之急遽和理想“美”之永恒间的断裂的苦思，诗人因此再度陷入概述和论理的僵局。
Charlotte Bronte once grievously exclaimed, that “while full of ruth for others, on herself she had no pity; the spirit was inexorable to the flesh; from the trembling hand, the unnerved limbs, the faded eyes, the same service was exacted as they had rendered in health.” Though these lines were inscribed for her afflicted sister Emily Bronte, the same seems befitting in case of Keats' sufferings.Introduction
Keats’ poems are often rich of sensual and natural imageries (such as those phrasings “ripening breast”, “tender-taken breath” and “earth’s human shores” representative of his Shakespearean sonnets) to accentuate extreme emotion. The thematic subject of steadfast love in his work resonates with Shakespeare’s delineation of its being “an ever fix’d mark” and “star to ev’ry wandering bark”. Also religious imageries are littered through his descriptions such as “sleepless Eremite” as reference to a Christian hermit ceremonially gazing at the newly-fallen snow on precipitous mountaintop.An amorous entanglement, instead of being constantly affectionate, usually is mingled with tormented accusations and a sort of protective reticence, which indeed confused Keats’ beloved Fanny Brawne[1]. Keats contracted tuberculosis when attending to his bedridden sibling and ended up coughing blood while dying; in the Protestant Cemetery beside the pyramid of Caius Cestius, on his epitaph it was engraved that “Here lies One whose Name was writ in Water[2]” befitting Keats’ poems with “marmoreal grandeur”. Though wrestling with the knowledge that mortals would perish, Keats is still one of the paramount Romantic figures underscoring inner feelings and the pleasure of observing his natural surrounding, in defiance of the Enlightenment’s ideals appreciating well-reasoned and scientific facts, as a knee-jerk rebellion. Keats follows the first generation of Romantic poets, e.g. Wordsworth, Coleridge and Blake; the works in which mills (and other revolutionised machines) are denigrated as “satanic”. In one poignant letter to his confidant Brown, Keats exclaims that “I have a habitual feeling of my real life having passed and that I am leading a posthumous existence”.Some of his well-acclaimed works belong to Odes, which are meditation upon particular objects or attributes (the one Ode on a Grecian Urn would be analysed in detail later). Through forthrightly depicting the function and appearance of the urn in terms of “express[ing] (and preserving) a flowery tale”, then bringing forth different tableaux on it (such as a couple in gaiety on the cusp of caressing, a priest leaving a heifer as oblation, and those petrified in a permanently ideal state), Keats pays homage to this Greek urn. The narrative tone wavers between being delightful or murmurous and being anxious.Ode on a Grecian Urn[3]
The poem was published in Annals of Fine Arts magazine anonymously. It pays accolade to this antique marble urn encircled by engravings; this vase chronicles the story of pilgrims, wooing lovers, gospel ladies and other mysterious figures, being both pleasurable and pitifully unalterable. In this poem, Keats’ fascination with the immortality of art is counterbalanced with his grievous awareness that those artistic refractions are lifeless.Life compensates for the disarming delusiveness of art (as art soothes life and bestows it peace, and a humanitarian impulse to correct the misalignment), while art compensates for the ephemerality of life (as life tortures one’s mind and renders it sharp-witted).Thou still[4] unravish'd bride of quietness,
(Quietness is usually the personified urn’s companion; a corner of non-interaction and contemplation would suffice, so that the urn would not be disturbed by the onslaught of time, or the sterility and bureaucracy of that era. It is provided with a buffer from the damning reality.)
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time, (the repetitive “ssh” sound brings forth a sense of stillness and concealment)
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express[5](this approach is known as hellenism[6], Keats’ remarkable approach of imitating and re-incarnating the Greek culture, embossed with vibrant rituals and animating faith. Just imagine the painting of Nymphs and Satyrs!)
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme: (the vessel outstrips traditional poetry in terms of narrating tales)
What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape (The urn’s spacial capacity transcends the constraints of time, while the speaker is preoccupied and dreaded by his rumination upon mortality. This resonates with the utility of urn: clasping the ashes of the dead, and not to aface their individuality. Just like how Yeats' bone being entombed where the terracotta tiles located during the warfare.)
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady? (both are places in northern German as a favourite haunt for the Muses, referring to pieces of the Parthenon preserved in museum)
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? (The word "loth" means disinclined, or being averse to something; this befits the supposedly panting and perennial love that Keats felt. Keats witnessed the detrimental effect of disease consumption firsthand (when attending upon his sibling), so that blooming health and gritty spirit in Fanny would be so much cherished. Keats is a steadfast lover in a monogamous pair with his muse Fanny, instead of being entangled in rectangular dynamic like other poets such as Byron of his age. His poetry was panned in 1818 following Tom’s death, while 1819 was recognised as the most prolific year of Keats’ writings.)
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? (Maybe the horny fauns is pursuing the nymphs or girls, who struggle to escape from the men's grabbing arms)
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? (Here a contrast between the unchanging urn and the temporal, terrestrial life is established within the very beginning of this ode. The “pipes and timbrels” perhaps indicate the elements of a Bacchanalian party.)
Heard melodies[7] are sweet, but those unheard
(The urn appears euphoric and carefree, like an untroubled seamstress. We readers behold those capering lovers, pipe-playing musicians and plenteous natural surroundings, which would never turn barren thus sharing an ultimate potential of stillness. Art is usually a bittersweet attainment, involving the sacrifice of definable facets of existence in exchange for barely perceptible truth and beauty. That is, to live a style of monastic life, with the poet himself being the Monk.)
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; (use of caesura to break up logic flow thus imitating the outburst of the poet’s fragmented inner feelings)
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd, (these are poetic melodies played to the imaginative, receptive ears)
Pipe to the spirit ditties[8] of no tone: ("of no tone" means musics played by ghosts or those non-existent creatures)
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, (This reflects the consciousness of time marching towards death: to bring time to a standstill not only necessarily preclude death, but also spurn the possibility of life. Mortality is an integral part of living, rather than a simple object fetishised serving for aesthetic purposes.)
Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, (Despite the fact that she would not grow old and gruesome as real people, he would never be satiated as those unfinished always remain unfinished, such as his unconsummated marriage.)
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu; (The trees never shed their leaves, as they remain forever ripened.)
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; (the poet pays reference to the immortal life unburdened by sickness, torment and death, through the excessive use of word "happy"; the transitional physical excitement is however, suspended)
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd, (love being forever pleasant and vibrant to the extent of making people feel fatigued (“cloyed”); in other words, it is too heavily burned and sticky (to the extent of “parching”))
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.
Who are these coming to the sacrifice? (There is a sudden descend in the exuberant emotion of the narrator, to a tone more contemplative and curious. It reflects Keats’ archaic self disguised under ornate language; the poet begins to behold a sacrificial procession seduced to the “altar” sculpted from nature.)
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies, (Heifer is a female cow not yet calved. Sacrificing a fleshy, unripened mammal is ritualistic (in a non-theistic sense?); “lowing” means mooing)
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest? (In relatively plain phrases, the cow’s limbs are embellished with flowery chains.)
What little town by river or sea shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel, (These images are representative of Theocritus’s shepherds’ living style. Keats masters the description of lucid expression and concrete imageries, which are highly adored by critic J.H. Fowler: “…no one more truly has vivified, whilst idealising, the picture of Greek country life in the fancied Golden Age than Keats.”)
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou (refers to the town) art desolate, can e'er return.
O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede (The urn’s Athenian shape classically from Attica and its beauteous attitude are celebrated again; “brede” is an archaic phrase referring to embroidery or plaiting, basically any interwoven patterns.)
Of marble men and maidens overwrought, (the term “overwrought” resonates with the poets’ craftily written enjambment, both being emotionally strained)
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought (It means to frustrate viewers with teasing riddles without definite allusion to anything; this leaves them with timeless amazement and power. This line is dragged out of the poet’s imagination, back to addressing the urn again.)
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral! (shifting from celebratory to half-accusatory tone)
When old age shall this generation waste, (here back to reality, time regains its erosive power against those secular Christlike figures)
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty[9],—that is all
(This famous line resonates with the first line of Endymion, that “A thing of beauty is a joy forever”. Here it shows Keats’ conciliatory spirit in an attempt to redeem some beautiful moments, which otherwise might flick into brutishness in reality rather quickly[10]. The poet achieves the realisation of Summum Bonum of human existence, as consisting of the equivalence between Beauty and Truth. It is through rhetorics that the poet’s sensual pleasure when appreciating this urn becomes spiritualised into genuine joy irradiated with beauty.)
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."
(The poet both reveres and teases the urn for being tight-lipped and smugly reticent. Perhaps the poet is telling us, that sometimes mystery without a wholesale answer is enough, that just experience the lushness of objects tolerantly . The doctrine is just as Keats himself once said, that “Coleridge, for instance, would let go by a fine isolated verisimilitude caught from the Penetralium[11] of mystery, from being incapable of remaining content with half knowledge.” That is, to approach the world from a flaneur’s view, unlike those tiresome wage-slaves’ attitude: the playfulness, lack of practicality, and the attempt of regarding life with a cursory glance.
But this last line might be analysed as being rather ironic, as it is also a desultory grip of the urn’s potential meaning, that is, an attempt to forge an wholesale answer, which may not ever exist.)
Conclusion
Writing odes is challenging, while too little adherence to factual details seems flippant and irresponsible, too much commitment to the object’s possible implications seems pedantic, like those squelchy granola scholars of Keats’ day. Famously, Keats ponders human beings’ negative capability: the ability to live with affliction and illness without getting rattled by them, as well as the capacity to sympathise with others.Keats’ poems mark the traits of Romantic poems with their reasonable judgement being subdued or eclipsed by the presence of imagination. Sometimes they bear resemblance to a valiantly unremitting campaign against the stifled societal norms.