...seized for poetic purposes gives way to an almost pointless series of questions: What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape Of deities or mortals,...of Arcady? What men or gods are these? What maidens loath? What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?76 These...

...Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme : What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape Of deities or mortals,...escape ? What pipes and timbrels ? What wild ecstasy ? The abab-cde-dce rhyme-scheme is exactly reflected in the eisthesis, ciano c-lines unindented, b-...

...Sylvan historian, who cansí thus express A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme: What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape Of deities or mortals,...escape? What pipes and timbrels? what wild ecstasy? II Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not...

...order to surmise the fuller implications of the poem's overrepresented beginning : What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape Of deities or mortals,...escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? (5-'°) Even as perfectly symmetrical a whole as the urn cannot, it seems, prevent a two-fold parergonal...

...made by music prior to this" (V, 8, 1, 31-2; 1, 6, 3. 28-36). Or as Keats puts it, "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard/ Are sweeter; therefore,...soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear but more endear'd/Pipe to the spiritual ditties of no sense" ("Ode on a Grecian Um"). Compare l, 6 [1] 3, 28-31:...

...become shorter and the imagery of sexual pursuit and conquest becomes more apparent: What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape Of deities or mortals,...escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? (11. 5-10) The urn's internal world draws on the tradition of the Frenchpastourelle, where the pastoral...

...Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flow'ry tale more sweetly than our rhyme: What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape Of deities or mortals,...escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? II Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not...

...sylvan historian, who canst thus express a flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme: what leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape of deities or mortals,...of Arcady? What men or gods are these? What maidens loath? What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? Heard...

..."raped" or "sent into ecstasy." Both possibilities are readable in the scenes depicted on the urn: What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? What...escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? 1 he privileged aesthetic moment is a freeze frame just prior to ravishment. But how does pressing...

..."Ode on a Grecian Urn" about the lovers on the urn who, being painted, will never die: Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore,...pipes, play on, Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave...