“Beauty is truth, truth beauty.” John Keats defines the truth behind beauty in association with the concept of life. In a general perspective, life is immortal. However, on a more personal level, life is abruptly hindered in the progression of time. Time is inevitable and human beings are confined in the authority of time. Keats depicts a visual narration of time in “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” The Grecian Urn establishes a world free of change. In this world, time cannot hinder the beauty of a single moment. The urn is an escape from the real world and pertains to the beauty of a single moment captured in time. Being the “foster-child of slow time” (line 2), the urn provides the notion that human beings are not bounded by the suppression of time.

“Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss, though winning near the goal-yet, do not grieve; she cannot fade, though hast not thy bliss, for ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!” (line 17-20). In the second stanza, Keats describes a paradox. The speaker is bounded by love, but he cannot fully grasp his emotions in relation to his lover. Although the speaker is unable to approach his lover, he knows that her beauty will never fade away. She will always be the object of his desire and the love between the two individuals will remain in eternal bliss.

Furthermore, death is prolonged. “Who are these coming to the sacrifice?…Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?” (line 31-37). The people are in route to the sacrifice of a heifer dressed in silken flanks and garlands. However, the people are merely in an ascent towards the sacrifice. They do not have the ability to experience death personally because the sacrifice is not depicted on the Grecian Urn in its entirety.

John Keats establishes the Grecian Urn as an escape from real life. The urn simultaneously depicts the innocence of love and the liberation from death. However, time in relation with life, is inevitable. The real world is bounded by time. “When old age shall this generation waste, thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe” (line 46-47). We as humans are suppressed by the changes in life. We face adversities on a consistent basis and do not have control of our own lives. As we fade with time, the Grecian Urn will remain present as a “Sylvian historian, who canst thus express a flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme” (line 3-4). The images depicted on the urn will forever remain in eternal bliss. The individual will remain with his lover and the sacrifice of the heifer will forever be at halt. Time defines human life and that is the true beauty.