Discovering Keats’s ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ Through the World of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Join me on a journey that blends literary analysis with interactive history! In this video, I use the immersive world of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey as a backdrop to re-experience John Keats’s famous Romantic poem, “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” By imagining the vibrant art and culture of ancient Greece—just as the game brings it to life—we’ll uncover the poem’s timeless themes, from eternal youth and beauty to the nature of truth and art. Whether you’re a fan of classical literature, historical games, or simply curious about how these worlds connect, this guided exploration will give you a richer understanding of Keats’s masterpiece.

Transcript

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Today we're going to be talking about the poem by John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn. This is one of his ode poems. Ode to a Nightingale is another one. Ode to Autumn, and John Keats is a romantic poet from the early 19th century. He wrote this in 1819, and in this video, what I'm going to do for you is I'm going to give you a little bit of a deeper understanding of anything you can find on the internet for this poem and what I mean, and what I hope to accomplish with you if you're willing to go through this whole video with me,

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is that you will see this poem in a completely new

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light and have an experience that John Keats wanted you to have. This is the whole point of heart in particularly imaginative literature is it's to experience something. So we're going to express and think about what what he wants us to experience. You could disagree or dislike or, you know, not agree with the ideas. You could disagree with the

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experience itself, whatever.

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Or you could think it's just not well constructed. All those things are separate. Our first obligation as a reader is to try to,

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have the experience he's trying to have. And I'm going to show you some ways to do that and to do that with all poetry. And we're going to do that with this poem. Now, I want to set this up, ode on a Grecian Home, by talking about a video game.

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So you might have this is a game that I played a while ago, Assassin's Creed Odyssey. And in playing it, it really made me,

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think about the world we live in is so amazing and bizarre. I mean, if you've played this game, then you know that it's a beautiful game with a role playing game and you play an assassin and there's like this whole backstory that's unimportant for this video, but you basically are playing this character during the Peloponnesian War.

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That's a war between,

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Athens and Sparta. Pre-Christian era. This is BC before Christ, hundreds of years before that. And, you know, there's this war between these two Greek city states, and it encompasses the whole, you know, basically the Greek world and beyond. And this character in here is a part, you know, takes place at that time. And he does adventures and assassinations and things like that.

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But the thing that's wonderful about it and the game is the,

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the attention to detail. Now there's a video. If I can find it, I will link it in my YouTube. But there's a video,

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on YouTube of an archeologist going through the game and, and like, pointing out, you know, a little this is inaccurate. That's not that's not accurate.

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But mostly saying this is very accurate to what we know today. This is, you know, basically what the game did is they took a lot of the best knowledge and information,

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from archeologists and hired real archeologists to help make the game real. And when you walk around the world, you can get a sense of the kind of lives that these people had.

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And the thing that struck me the most about this video game and the of why I think ancient Greek Greece was the greatest civilization, is that not only is there this hustle and bustle and everybody's active, and there's a kind of general vibe of, happiness and trying to place joy despite the fact of all the horror that's happening in the world.

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It is the esthetic life, the life of art. Everywhere you walk around this place is art. And that's how it was in these city states. There were sculptures in their banks, what they would have been, their banks and their marketplace. Everything had to have beautiful art attached to it. Stories, you know,

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their sculptures, the number of sculptures is just astounding.

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And we don't really understand it today. If you drive around, I live in America. If you drive around America, you might get lucky to find a sculpture every couple ten, 20, 30, 50 marks on my. It's ridiculous here. You can't go ten steps without hitting a sculpture. And the sculptures could be small sculptures, medium sized sculptures,

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life sized sculptures, Mega behemoth sculptures.

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Sculptures that you can like. They're intense and it's everywhere. And that's the kind of life. And one of the things you get is just this. If you really try to get it, you have to. You have to do it. It's not going to be automatic, is you can really get a sense for the lives of the people at this time, not the poem.

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We're going to be reading is called ode on a Grecian Urn. Now an urn is what you put ashes in. If you have ever been to a museum,

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you know that has classical art. You might have seen vases or urns like this that have paintings or little,

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pictures all over this. Here. We might have,

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you know, some guy looks like he might be playing a pipe.

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And there's, you know, there's activities. It looks like some kind of,

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festival going on here. There's,

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you know, this one looks like a person is,

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chasing another person. I think that might be Hermes is chasing a woman. Maybe it's a lover. Maybe he's trying to tell her a message or whatever. But you you have that.

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And I want you to have that context of thinking about the people who actually did this, who actually painted this. And they were painting depictions of stories that they had heard. They're painting depictions of real,

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of real things they might have seen. And, you know, like, like the character in the,

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the game that I was this is this is from a game, by the way, this image,

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and if you're listening, go to YouTube and check out some of the images.

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But this is,

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you know, he's painting things that he sees around him and he's trying to idealize it and essentially what he sees for other people. And you can go into a museum and see this to this day, you could see these images. Here's, you know, a painter probably saw,

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death in his life. And he wanted to depict war.

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And here's a moment of a warrior stabbing another warrior. And I don't know if this for sure. If this is the pent, the Celia,

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Achilles killing of penicillin. But nevertheless, the point is that this is something that is occurring,

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that the painter saw. He was trying to centralize, and it exists today. In 2025, or I'm recording this 2024.

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And,

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you know, I, I want you to think about the lives that people before us lived. I think this is one of the great injustices of the education system, is that we do not do a good job of helping build the imaginative, inner, imaginative lives of kids. And that means us, me, you. We didn't we didn't get training in how to do this.

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And this is a problem. And this is why we require video games. But which by the way, I love the video game. But the problem is we don't take the time to build our own inner citadels. And so there's a kind of potential to have a somewhat vacuous, vapid, emptier than you otherwise would have had. Life, inner life and reading poetry in the right way will help with that.

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And not only how, but that it is the training required to do that.

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So what I'm going to do to help unpack and help you understand and enjoy this poem is I'm going to read it once without explaining anything. So I've given you the context of thinking about these Grecian urns. This is called ode on a Grecian Urn. And think about what an ode is. An ode is basically a kind of poem, a lyric poem, but in the form of an address, you know,

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Ode to Immortality is you're talking about immortality in some way.

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That's a poem by Wordsworth. Ode to a Nightingale. Gail, is. You're doing a lyric poem to ode to a Beautiful Woman as an ode to a beer. You know, it's an addressed or or

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an addressed to beauty. You could say ode to beauty in general. And this is ode on a Grecian Urn. Now, again, I want you to think about the context of I was trying to build for you of ancient people being real human beings, that someone actually painted, that image that you saw and that you're looking at.

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I mean, you're going to a museum and you see it and you like looking at it behind that paint glass and you're like, oh my gosh, somebody did this. Somebody painted this thousands of years ago. And that's the context you have to have. That's what this narrator is speaking about. So I'm going to read the poem, and I want you to just experience the sounds.

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So don't worry about the meaning. If, you know, try to get what you can out of it, but don't worry about it, because we're going to break it down a little bit. I'm going to define a couple words and then we're going to read it again. Poetry is meant to be reread. You can never, never read a poem only once.

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You're wasting your time. If you're only going to read a poem once, just move on. And that's okay too. But if you want to actually experience poetry, you have to. This is not an option. You have to read it multiple times because especially lyric poems, shorter poems like this need to be understood in the totality of itself. Okay, let's read it.

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So ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats.

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Thou still on ravished bride of quietness. Thou foster child of silence and slow time. Sylvan historian who canst thus express a flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme. What? What leaf fringed legend haunts about the shape of deities or mortals, or of both in Tempe, or the dales of Arcadia?

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What men or gods are these? What maidens laugh? What mad pursuit, what struggle to escape? What pipes and timbers, what wild ecstasy

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heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter. Therefore ye soft pipes play on not to the sensual ear. But more endeared pipe to the spirit. Did his of no tone fare youth beneath the trees. Thou canst not leave thy song.

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Nor ever can those trees be bare. Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss. Thou winning near the goal. Yet do not grieve. She cannot fade. Though thou hast not thy bliss forever. Wilt thou love. And she be fair.

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Happy, happy boughs that cannot shed your leaves. Nor ever bid the spring adieu. And happy melodies unwearied forever piping songs forever new, more happy love more happy, happy love.

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Forever warm and still to be enjoyed. Forever painting and forever young. All breathing. Human passion far above that leaves a heart high, sorrowful and keloid. A burning forehead and a parching tongue. Who are these coming to the sacrifice to what green altar, O mysterious priest, lead style. That heifer lowing at the skies. And all her silken flings with garlands, dressed.

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What little town by river or seashore or mountain. Built with peaceful citadel. Is emptied of this folk. Of this pious morn and little town. Thy streets forevermore will silent be. And not a soul to tell. Why thou art desolate. Can never return. O attic sheep. Fair attitude with breed a of marble men and maidens overwrought with forest branches.

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And the trodden weed. Thou silent form dust. Tis a sort of thought as doth eternity cold. Pastoral.

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When old age shall this generation waste. Thou shalt remain in midst of other woe than ours. A friend to man. To whom thou sayest beauteous truth, truth, beauty, that is all ye know on earth. And all you need to know.

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Now, if you're like me, the first hearing of that is perhaps a good 5% of comprehension. And that's okay. A poem like this is, you know, when the rereading part is the constant for the rest of your life reading, if you like this poem. And I do believe this is one of the poems that merit a lifetime of rereading, because there's just always such beauty and interesting and mystery and what is exactly going on.

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But let's look at how to actually understand this poem and break it down a little bit. I'm not going to do like a whole analysis that would take a long time. And you can go to troubadour Dot studio, and I'll have a little bit more analysis in written form there.

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And also have some key terms for you to, to have so you can have and I'll let you know as we go, those key terms, but we'll just go through it and kind of

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what I call converse with verse, which is just going through it, asking some basic questions and trying to understand what it means for ourselves.

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And remember, our goal is to understand this from a,

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imaginative sense. We're trying to imaginatively understand,

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or experience something that he's trying to have us experience.

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So he starts by saying, thou still unravished bride of quietness. You're going to have to kind of get used to the thou part, which is the you, the the canst, which means can the thees things like that. So I'll, I'll break it down as we go through. But you know, hopefully as you do more of this, you'll kind of when you're reading these older poems, they sometimes slip and use those, those terms.

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So thou still un ravished bride of quietness. And I think that's interesting to think about. So stop and think about what does it mean to be a bride of quietness? So it's not quietness, it's the married partner, not even quite married yet. So it's he's he's trying to set something up. It seems like between the actual thing. So if you imagine again this man, John Keats or yourself in a museum and you're looking at this painting or this sculpture or this,

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vase that has all these paintings on it, and there's images and there's gods and there's men chasing women, and there's men killing other men, and there's festivals, and there's all these depictions all

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over the place. Hundreds of them. And he's saying that, and it's very quiet, but you're in a museum, or you're in a place where there's no one else, and then the vase itself is not emitting noise. There's it's not a record player that's singing a song. It's not a CD player. It's not a computer. It's a vase with some images on it.

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So it's a it's now it's quiet, but he's calling it not just quiet. He's calling it the bride of quietness. And then he says, thou foster child of silence and slow time. So not, not the child, not even, you know, they didn't even give birth to this Grecian urn that he's talking to. Remember he's addressing. He's. It's like he's remembering.

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Think of him. Picture him talking to this thing. He says, you foster child of silence in slow time. So again, you're not the child of silence and slow time, but you're the foster child, the adopted child of silence and slow time. And slow time is the step by step, day by day, for hundreds and thousands of years that led that Grecian urn to be right in front of John Keats, which is thousands of years ago.

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Remember what I said about you have to picture the people behind the creation of this and around this, this. They existed. They were real sylvan historian who can't thus express a flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme. Sylvan historian. Sylvan just means,

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you know, pastoral. It's it's of the forest, the woods. But it has a kind of connotation, I think, similar to going into the realms of imagination.

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So if you think about the role in a children's story, short story of Once Upon a Time, it's like you're going to another land you. This land is once upon a time land. It's imaginative land. It's not real land. It's a land where princesses can sing and birds and squirrels will come and clean their room for them. That's not the real world.

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That's the once upon a time and land. That's what Sylvan Historian kind of does. Except it's not sylvan artists, it's Sylvan historian.

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what Keats is doing is he's capturing something of his history here, but it's still this imaginative history. It's this history of this unreal, you know, place that doesn't exist. And that's the connotation, the, the emotion he's trying to invoke,

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who can, who canst, who can thus express a flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme?

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So he's saying that this urn, this vase can capture more sweetly the tale of the woman being chased by Hermes, the god messenger, or the. The tale of the soldier Achilles killing pent. The Celia, the Queen of the Amazons, or something like that. Like this. And he's saying that that this urn from thousands of years ago is capturing something real, that his rhyme is poetry.

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Today, in 1819, when he writes this is incapable of doing what leaf fringed legend haunts about the shape of deities or mortals, or of both in Tempe, or the dales of Arcadia. So Tempe or the dales of Arcadia are just places in ancient Greek Greece, and a dale is like just pictures. Big valley with lots of grass and green trees, a huge valley.

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And just. He's just talking about what leaf fringe legend is behind a haunts is is the real inspiration to the painter thousands of years ago of that shape of deities or mortals? Did he see a god when he painted Zeus? That he actually see Zeus?

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When he talks about what struggle to escape, he's talking about a maiden, a woman who's probably being grabbed by some man and she's trying to get away and she's struggling to escape.

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What? Pipe and Timbrel is like a tambourine type thing is timbrel. So again, that's the celebration. Remember the urn? The vase that I showed you of the celebration of people walking down?

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You know, somewhere.

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What? Wild ecstasy. Now, here's something really, really nice,

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that you might have even heard before. It's a famous line. Heard melodies are sweet.

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The great Kirk's, you know, reading a poet poem pretty good. Someone better does even better. Someone who's a great singer. That's even better. Singing something beautiful on stage, playing a song, going to a concert and hearing with your ears this one. That's sweet, that's beautiful. That's wonderful. But those unheard, those melodies unheard are sweeter. Now, what do you think that means?

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I would challenge you to pause the video and actually write down what you think that means. But I'll tell you a little quick view of what I think it means. Heard melodies are sweet, so when you hear a melody, that's what's in a song. And it's the and it's hitting your ears, or if you see something and you can project that and hear it in your own head, or see the image play out in your own head, the the realm of imagination is even better.

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That's the inner world, the inner citadel of your mind. And that's better if you can hear the music in your own head yourself. Beethoven must have heard music before you played it.

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You know, these great composers must hear the music before they play it. And how sweet that is heard. Melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.

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Therefore ye soft pipes play on ye. Soft pipes play on. So that's that. That image of the piper that I was showing you before. He's Keats is telling that image to play on. Keep playing. Not to the sensual ear, but more endeared pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone. So again, what are we covering as the no tone?

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This is the realm of the not sensual and I mean senses, the non senses, but other than the senses, the imagination, the inner world. This is the quiet self,

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quiet inner world,

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fair youth beneath the trees. Thou can not, canst not leave. Cannot leave thy song. So now he's talking to this. This young person. That an image on the vase of a young person beneath the trees.

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You cannot leave your song. Nor ever can those trees be bare. So they're always going to be like that. The image has lasted thousands of years. That character is captured there and encapsulated there forever. Bold lover now he's talking to a lover. So, you know, think about a vase image. Where there's a lover there. Bold lover, never, never canst thou kissed.

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So if you think about. If you imagine a vase where with an image of a man about to kiss a woman. But they're never actually going to kiss. Bald lover. Never, never. Can you kiss though winning near the goal yet? So you're right there. You're right there. But you're there forever. For thousands of years captured. And if you think like maybe there's this image, these creatures were a model, maybe there is a model or a person thousands of years ago that the painter captured, and they actually did kiss in real life, but in the image they're forever captured is just on the verge of kissing, so they never actually get to kiss in the vase

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And he says, though winning near the the,

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the goal. Yet do not grieve. Why don't you grieve? Because it would be pretty torturous to be right next to a kiss and not be able to finish the kiss for all eternity. Well, what do you have? What's the positive? She cannot fade. She's eternal. She doesn't get a hold.

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And wrinkled and saggy. She will live as the prime of her life. Beautiful forever. She's been captured forever. Though thou hast not thy bliss. Though you have not your bliss is how to translate that forever will you love. And she be fair. So though you don't have the ability to sensually feel her lips on your lips forever, you will love her and she will be fair.

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That's the trade off of the imaginative of this imaginative realm is you have it captured forever, but you don't actually get to have that sensual. But now, you know, some people are saying that that's one might say that's not enough, and that's okay. We'll talk about it. AH! Happy, happy boughs. Those are the tree limbs that cannot shed your leaves, nor ever bid the spring adieu again.

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This is continuing this idea that the trees that he's seeing in these images will never fade away. They're going to be there forever. And happy melodist Think of the the piper. Someone singing a song in the vase or depicted on the vase. Unwearied forever piping songs forever. No more happy love, more happy happy love forever warm and still to be enjoyed.

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Forever painting and forever young. So again, he's just saying, you know,

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you get to be happy forever more happy love warm forever in this, in this image,

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forever young, captured. Forever young.

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All breathing human passion. Far above that leaves a heart high. Sorrowful and Cloyd

00:26:02:03 - 00:26:12:17
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now Cloyd. Cloyd. Clow. Why Ed actually, this is my understanding of what is trying to be said here is,

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disgust or sickened someone with an excess of sweetness.

00:26:16:22 - 00:26:20:29
Unknown
I think the term we might use is almost like his gross simp. Right.

00:26:20:29 - 00:26:40:22
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And maybe that's not the right way to look. Kind of. But that's, you know, one way to think about it. But all breathing, human passion far above so we are breathing human passions. I think that leaves, that escapes, walks away from a heart high, sorrowful and Cloyd a burning forehead and a parching tongue.

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So this is, I think, something about our real reality of what we are constantly yearning for something, but we're not quite ever fulfilling it. In the real world, like, we don't really get to taste the bliss that we want in our heads. There's a disconnect between what we want and what we actually taste. Whoo! Now he's going to switch and start talking to either another urn or other images on this one.

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Grecian urn who are these coming to sacrifice? So we've seen an image of,

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you know, people coming to sacrifice to what? Green altar? Oh. Mysterious priest. So there's a priest being depicted in this image. Leads lead. Now lead. Your lead. That heifer lowing at the skies and all her silken flanks with Garland dressed. So who is this priest?

00:27:35:29 - 00:27:46:17
Unknown
That's, you know, this heifer, this cow that is leading off to be slaughtered for the sacrifice? What little town by river or seashore? So now he sees a town,

00:27:46:17 - 00:27:58:17
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or mountain belt with peaceful citadel is emptied of this folk, this pious morn. He's again the viewer. John Keats is looking at this urn and trying to see what was the real,

00:27:58:17 - 00:28:03:24
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inspiration for this image and what happened to it.

00:28:03:27 - 00:28:28:18
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And little town, thy streets. Forever more will silent be the town that was depicted. Whatever town was the inspiration to the painter thousands of years ago. That town's gone. There's nothing. It's dirt. It's dirt upon dirt upon dirt. So they will be silent forevermore. And they're silent in the vase too. And not tell a soul and not a soul to tell.

00:28:28:25 - 00:28:36:00
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Why thou, why you are desolate. Cannot return. So they're all dead and long gone.

00:28:36:00 - 00:28:42:05
Unknown
Oh, attic. Same Athenian Greek fair attitude. With Bree de.

00:28:42:05 - 00:28:51:07
Unknown
Now I think Bree days means something like braid is the best that I can come up with. But I'm looking up these words. So you should be looking up words when you don't understand them.

00:28:51:07 - 00:29:03:12
Unknown
That's one of the things you should do in reading poetry. But okay, let's let's continue. O attic shape. Athenian Greek shape. Fair attitude with breed of marble. Men and maidens overwrought.

00:29:03:12 - 00:29:10:01
Unknown
So it sounds like he's actually kind of criticizing this thing for a moment because he's saying it's overwrought,

00:29:10:01 - 00:29:15:14
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fair attitude with breed, with like, a intertwining of marble men and maidens overdone.

00:29:15:14 - 00:29:18:22
Unknown
Too much, too, too much adornment too much.

00:29:18:22 - 00:29:19:08
Unknown
You know,

00:29:19:08 - 00:29:42:29
Unknown
of this inter twining or too many images on one vase? Maybe that's what they say. It's like this is too much with forest branches and the trodden weed and trodden tree tread you, thou silent form does tease us out of thought, as does doth eternity cold pastoral. So what's he trying to say there?

00:29:43:00 - 00:30:06:14
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That's, you know, you silent form. You're teasing us out of thought, as does eternity. Cold pastoral. It's almost like he's pausing and saying, like God, you're like. You're just a cold pastoral sitting there, and you're just not giving me all that I want. You're not giving me the the bliss that I really want. When old age shall this generation wait.

00:30:06:17 - 00:30:29:10
Unknown
So he's talking about himself and his peers. This is 1819. John Keats actually died at the age of 25, very young. But all the people that he knew are all dead now. So he says, when old age, this generation waste, thou shalt remain so that vase Saint John Keats saw. We can see that vase unless somebody blew it up by now.

00:30:29:10 - 00:30:58:11
Unknown
But, you know, supposedly we could still see that base in midst of other woe sadnesses than ours. A friend to man. So you vase our friend a man to whom you say is a beauty is truth. Truth, beauty. That is all you know on earth, and all you need to know. So that's something to think about philosophically. Do you agree that beauty is it equals?

00:30:58:11 - 00:31:18:20
Unknown
It's the same thing that they go hand in hand. Truth and truth, beauty and that. There you go. You know, it's an equation. One equals one plus one is two. Beauty is truth. Truth is beauty does not. Do you agree with that? And what is you know, I want you to think a little bit more about what you think you might mean by beauty is truth.

00:31:18:20 - 00:31:42:20
Unknown
What do we think about beauty in the vase is beautiful. The poem is beautiful and what is he saying about our necessity? Maybe we have a necessity for this, that this is something he deeply, deeply needs and that maybe all humans need. Now, I will say, and there's a lot that I could continue to say about this, that I have often heard people say that I'm not a poetry person.

00:31:42:20 - 00:32:10:02
Unknown
I'm not a literature person. I don't really like great art nonsense. You're not fulfilling a vital need of your soul, and you just don't realize it. Now. Maybe you're getting it in music and movies a little bit, and I think that's wonderful. I love I was a film major, I love movies, I have a reaction channel or a reaction shows where I'm trying to expand my understanding of music myself.

00:32:10:02 - 00:32:34:11
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So I'm trying to better myself with music. My argument is that there's something deeply hidden and important that all humans need from great literature. And that, I think, is the message or one of the messages of Ode and addressed to this Grecian urn, this art from thousands of years ago that is impacting him and making him think about these comparisons.

00:32:34:11 - 00:32:57:10
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The bride of quietness, the child of foster child of silence and slow time, and all these characters. He's trying to think about the connection between the inspired object. So the model the painter was using and the final product that has lasted thousands of years. Where's the reality there? Where's the reality in that kiss? They don't get to kiss, ever.

00:32:57:15 - 00:33:18:06
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So is there anything there? Is there anything important that we should have in our inner lives? Or should we just try to kiss no matter what? Just kiss everything we can. And. And it's all it's all about the kiss It's not about the. The inner world of the meaning behind the kiss. Okay, so I've gone on longer than I wanted to, and I'm going to now,

00:33:18:06 - 00:33:21:22
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really quickly just read the poem one more time.

00:33:21:22 - 00:33:29:22
Unknown
And that's how we're going to finish this video, and hopefully you'll get a little bit more out of the understand of this poem. The second time.

00:33:29:22 - 00:33:33:00
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Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats.

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Thou still on ravished bride of quietness, thou foster child of silence and slow time. Sylvan historian who canst thus express a flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme.

00:33:46:03 - 00:34:23:03
Unknown
What leaf, friends, legend haunts about those shape of deities or mortals, or of both in Tempe or the Dales of our city? What men or gods are these what maidens love? What mad pursuit, what struggle to escape, what pipes and trembles, what wild ecstasy heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter. Therefore these soft pipes play on not to the sensual ear, but more endeared pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone fair youth beneath the trees.

00:34:23:10 - 00:34:44:23
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Thou canst not leave thy song. Nor ever can those trees be bare. Bold lover, never, never canst that thou kiss the winning near the goal. Yet do not grieve. She cannot fade. Though thou hast not thy bliss forever. Wilt thou love. And she be fair.

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Happy, happy boughs that cannot shed your leaves. Nor ever bid the spring adieu.

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And happy melodies unwearied forever piping songs forever new, more happy love more happy, happy love. Forever warm and still to be enjoyed. Forever painting and forever young.

00:35:04:26 - 00:35:21:29
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All breathing human passion far above that leaves a heart high, sorrowful and coiled. A burning forehead and a parching tongue. Who are these coming to the sacrifice. To what green altar? Who mysterious priest leads thou?

00:35:21:29 - 00:35:48:15
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That heifer lowing at the skies and at. And all her silken flanks with garlands dressed. What little town by river or seashore or mountain built with peaceful citadel. Is emptied of this folk. This pious morn and little town. Thy streets forevermore will silent be. And not a soul to tell. While why thou art desolate can air return.

00:35:48:15 - 00:35:50:02
Unknown
O add a shape.

00:35:50:05 - 00:36:25:12
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Fair attitude. What with breed of marble. Men and maidens overwrought with forest branches. And the trodden weed. Thou silent form dost tease us out of thought. As doth the eternity cold pastoral. When old age shall this generation waste. Thou shalt remain in midst of other woe than ours. A friend, a man to whom thou sayest beauty is truth, truth, beauty, that is all ye know on earth, and all you need to know.

00:36:25:12 - 00:36:27:02
Unknown
All right, till next time,

00:36:27:02 - 00:36:43:12
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go to troubadour Dot studio for a little bit more of the show notes and other things about this poem that I hope will help you understand. You can also support my page to become a page supporter. Or you could join the Literary Canon Club, where we read through the great works of literature from Homer to Melville.

00:36:43:14 - 00:36:45:10
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So I'll see you next time.