ode on a grayson perry urn

Question 1

poem context

Answer 1

• parody of john Keats, ‘ode on a grecian urn’
  = truth is eternal and through art, beauty can become eternal
  =idealised view of rural life

Question 2

“kids in cars on crap estates”

Answer 2

• distorts Keats’ world with a harsh contrast

Question 3

“Manchester to Motherwell or Slough”

Answer 3

-urban world
- contrast to Keats, not an ideal place of fiction

Question 4

“a sense of peace, of calm”

Answer 4

ironic
- modern art challenges the eternal quality of beauty

Question 5

“They will stay out late /
forever”

Answer 5

like Keats poem/vase, this scene will also be preserved forever
- this unideal scene

Question 6

“Each girl is buff, each geezer toned and strong”
“given head in cruel games of chlamydia”

Answer 6

not love being pictured but desire
- contrast to the ideal lovers in the Grecian Urn (Keats)

Question 7

“future poets look on you amazed”
“lives so free and bountiful”

Answer 7

irony

Question 8

“who knew the truth was all negotiable and beauty in the gift of the beholder”

Answer 8

parody, challenging the ideals
- beauty is subjective, modern view “a matter of personal opinion”

Question 9

form

Answer 9

• regular rhyme
• pentameter
• 10 line stanzas
• replicates Keats form yet still mocks the ideas of Keats and challenges the reality of beauty

Question 10

meaning

Answer 10

This poem uses a traditional art form to explore and challenge modern messages