Friday, February 21, 2014

How is the happiness in stanza 3 related to the assertion in lines 11-12 in "Ode on a Grecian Urn"?"Heard melodies are sweet,/ But those unheard...

When the speaker speaks of the happiness of the lovers who never will grow old, and who are always just at the point of highest expectation of that first sweet kiss, and of spring which will always remain warm with leaves on the trees and birds singing in them, he is also leading up to imagination.  He imagines how all these things feel as he is comparing how he has felt in similar situations.  It is also true, then, that the "heard melodies are sweet..."  these are the ones which are played that we can all hear and pass judgment on--do we like it or not? But "those unheard are sweeter" alludes to the ones we imagine the lute player is playing...if we imagine it, it will always be a beautiful and sweet tune.  There is nothing to judge, and it will be sweet to EVERY listener because every listener imagines that which is beautiful to him or her.  Therefore, we are all guaranteed a lovely and sweet melody...how can we not be happy then?

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In Act III, scene 2, why may the establishment of Claudius's guilt be considered the crisis of the revenge plot?

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