John Keat’s Ode on a Grecian Urn vs. Ofterdingen’s Novalis

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Ode on a Grecian Urn
Henry von Ofterdingen
Conclusion

Introduction

The humanity was always interested and attracted by the issues of life and death, eternity and memory. Originally, all the thoughts and considerations were expressed by the philosophers, who concentrated the spirit of the epochs they lived in, in their own philosophic works.

John Keat’s Ode on a Grecian Urn and Henry von Ofterdingen’s Novalis are the literary works devoted to the philosophical and allegorical representations of these issues. Surely, they are not the outstanding philosophers, however, any writer (novelist or poet) is a philosopher in his soul.

Ode on a Grecian Urn

This poem involves different matters, that are closely connected with life, its rules, origins, principles and laws. It is stated, that the poem is based on the paradoxes and opposites: The first and the foremost is the discrepancy between the urn with its frozen images, and the dynamics of the life, which these images portray. The very fact of the purpose of the urn puts everything on the proper places. On the other hand, the life is changeable, and the humans are mortal, while the images, carved on the urn, and, probably the urn itself seems to be immortal and permanent. Anyway, its existence will be much longer than the life of any particular human. The matter of participation versus observation is also revealed, however it may be attributed to the issues of mortality and eternity, as the immortal urn would witness the numerous events, while the partaking human will be placed in the urn after death. It is necessary to emphasize, that the urn also represents the eternal “struggle” of life and art. From this point of view, the life is active, current and not eternal, while art is still, and will never die.

Actually, the very essence and the author’s concept is expressed in the first lines of the verse:

Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thou express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring’d legend haunt about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

In spite of the fact, that it is the only beginning of the verse – it is logically completed, and does not require continuation.

Henry von Ofterdingen

In distinction with the Ode to Grecian Urn, this novel by Novalis is not so fundamental in the studies of life and death, mortality and eternity. In distinction with the Ode to Grecian Urn it is the bright example of romanticism, and it is claimed, that it is the gentle book, full of wonder, poetry, fairy tales, and philosophy. Unfortunately, the book left unfinished, as the author died very unexpectedly. The book left unfinished, and, most probably, the main consideration and the key thought stayed uncovered, or covered partly, as the feature of romanticism is summarizing the key consideration in the end of the novel. Nevertheless, the last fairy tale is regarded to discover the matters of death and eternity, though, the very notion of death sounds differently from the notion in the Ode to Grecian Urn. It should be stated, that romantics could not mention it directly, and described it very sensitively and touching.

In these essays Novalis develops the theories of history, touching the matters of death and eternity in history, referring the philosophical works by Plato, Ploinos and Fichte. Novalis forecasts, that humankind’s historical and spiritual apotheosis will be reached when the era of science is left behind. The power of imagination, that knows no limits will be able to join the sensitive and scientific parts of the cognition process, and the principles invented by reason.

Alternatively, the fact that the book is unfinished, and stops with the fairytale, that is far from the logical ending emphasizes the fact, that the art is eternal, and there is no end for the art, philosophy, romanticism and the will for life. Originally, this fact was not intentional, nevertheless, the instance of such uncompletedness is not the only in the art, and it only emphasizes the eternity of the art, romantic impulse and the concept, that the beautiful is eternal.

Conclusion

As it has been mentioned, that the humankind always aimed to cognize the matters of death and eternity, this cognition continued for centuries, and continues currently. The fact is that, some poets and philosophers approached these issues too closely for their concepts stayed unmentioned. However, it seems, that the very notion of the life through poetry and art is ridiculous, nevertheless, the names of John Keat and Novalis stay eternal.

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John Keat’s Ode on a Grecian Urn vs. Ofterdingen’s Novalis

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