Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago

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Written by the English Romantic poet John Keats in May 1819, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” examines the close relationship between art, beauty, and truth. For the speaker, it is through beauty that humankind comes closest to truth—and through art that human beings can attain this beauty (though it remains a bittersweet achievement).