Theme of "Ode on a Grecian Urn"

It is true reading between the lines is a critical element of interpreting poetry. However in “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” John Keats puts all necessary information into his rolling, poetic words. Although the language is a bit old, it shouldn’t be too difficult to understand this poem’s theme. First off, the title speaks in abundance; this poem is all about the ornate wooden carvings that this urn possesses, and more so, the stories it tells. It is clear in the first stanza that the speaker is talking TO the urn. It is important to notice how he is speaking to it, asking of its history: “What leaf-fring’d legend haunts about thy shape of deities or mortals…” (978) Another good indication of the ornate look of the urn is how many questions he asks of it. Clearly seven separate questions should indicate that this urn is not plain in any way.
The second stanza seems to apply to a courting couple. The speaker tells them even though they will never kiss, the man should not be sad because his lover “cannot fade” (979). Their love will always remain.
Stanza three also offers another portrait of never ending spring and the joy that comes with it. However, it takes on a bit of a sour note at the end stating the “happy love…leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy’d” (979). The speaker is saying it leaves the heart sick from too much sweetness.
Finally in the last stanza, the poem comes together. While all the other stanzas relate to the ornate story the urn tells, the last stanza relates to the mystery of existence. This urn is beautiful, but it only ends up reminding us of death; and long after we are gone, the urn will live on as a reminder to man saying: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty.” (980) True beauty can only be discovered through life. Beauty is reality and reality is beautiful.