"Ode on a Grecian Urn"

Part 1:
After the first time reading "Ode on a Grecian Urn," I was completely confused. As with basically all poetry, I never understand it after reading it for the first time or even the second. Actually, it takes me quite a few times to get the general meaning of a poem. I guess you could say I'm not a poetry lover unless it is published in the only poetry book I've ever owned titled Sing a Song of Popcorn. Getting back to the poem, I hate saying it, but I was simply not interested. I most likely felt this way because I have a tiny vocabulary and didn't understand words like "loth," "ditties," "heifer," and "pious". No one talks like that anymore! I know the beauty of poetry consists of a flowing language with hidden meanings, but I just wish that the poem would get straight to the point and not confuse me!

Part 2: John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is about poetry or anything you want it to be about. (haha just kidding)

Serious now...

Part 2:
John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" describes an urn which has figures carved into the surface. In the first stanza, the reader is trying to figure out who the characters are and the story that they are trying to tell. In the first line, the word "still" describes the time on the urn and hints that the figures are stationary. Questions arise that aim at interpreting the figures on the urn. The reader asks, "What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?....". With these questions being asked, the reader is becoming extremely interested about the purpose of these characters.
In the second stanza, the idea of being frozen in time is discussed. Keats goes into the negatives of time standing still and also reflects about the positive aspects. A young man is playing his pipe to his lover underneath a tree. Keats mentions that the music the piper is playing cannot be heard which is one negative to being trapped in time. Another negative aspect is that the piper will never be able to kiss his lover. On the other hand, frozen time could be a good thing since the tree will never loose its leaves and the beauty of the woman will never fade.
The idea about the trees never becoming bare is reiterated in the third stanza. Although the pipers songs are silent, Keats switches to a positive outlook which is that the songs will be "for ever young." Human love is described as causing a "heart high-sorrowful," and the life of the urn does not allow for any suffering or disappointment since it's unchanging.
A turn is made in the poem with the start of the fourth stanza. A new carved image is being analyzed on the urn. The picture is described as the townspeople gathered at a sacrifice. The reader imagines the little village of having no residents since all are at the sacrifice. Since the "folk" are all gathered at one place on the urn, they are at that location permanently and the town will be empty.
The reader is no longer within the context of the urn in stanza five. The urn is once again described as being "eternity" or forever frozen. The phrase used in line forty four, "Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought," suggests that this unchanging ideal world does not truly exist and teases the reader since it does not allow for any real fulfilment.
The final couplet is a confusing message due to the fact that the the speaker is unknown and the one that the message is directed to is also unknown. It has been suggested that art is being rejected since it holds no truth. "Beauty is truth, truth beauty...," which could be interpreted as life being the only true beauty since it's real. Another interpretation could be that the reader is saying that the statement, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," is the only thing the urn needs to know.
The speaker comes to a conclusion that the urn will still remain when this generation is dead. The characters on the urn and the stories that they tell will last through time since time does not change them. The last couplet further demonstrates that the urn is beauty since it holds some truth about the past and about the time before the images were carved. Keat's feels that the urn teaches us that the past cannot be changed and that is the beauty of it.