ALLS 7(4):95-112, 2016
103
And, happy melodist, unwearie'd,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoyed,
Forever panting, and forever young-
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high- sorrowful and cloyed,
30 A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.
IV
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green alter, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands dressed?
What little town by river or sea shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a
soul to tell
40 why thou are desolate, can e'er return.
V
O Attic shape! Fair attitude! With brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought
With forest branches and the
trodden weed;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whim thou say'st,
' beauty is truth, truth beauty, -that is all
50 Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'
Taken into consideration the frequent reoccurrence of lexicogrammatical units in Keats's Ode, Table.1 has shown the
predominance of the nominal group pattern in the poetic texture in analysis. More importantly, the nominal group is of
different sub-categories.
Table 1. The nominal group sub-categories in Keats's
Ode on a Grecian Urn
H
(M)H
H(Q)
(M)H Q)
mortals(5)
Tempe(7)
men(8)
gods(8)
struggle(9)
pipes (10)
timberls(10)
Sylvan historian(3)
A flowery tale(3)
Our rhyme(3)
Leaf-fringed
Legend(5)
Mad pursuit(9)
wild ecstasy(10)
maiden loth(8)
still unravished bride of
quietness(1)
foster-child of silence and
slow time(2)
thy shape of deities(4-5)
the dales of Arcady(7)
heard melodies(11)
ye soft pipes(12)
the sensual ear(13)
fair youth(15)
the trees(15)
thy song(16)
those trees(16)
bold lover(17)
the goal(18)
thy bliss(19)
the spirit deities of no
tone(14)
happy boughs(21)
your leaves(22)
the Spring(22)
happy melodies(23)
piping songs(24)
happy love(25)
happy love(25)
a heart high-
sorrowful and
cloyed(29)