1. ‘What oft was thought but ne’er so well expressed’.
Alexander Pop in Essay on Criticism 1709
Conservative – poetry re-tells truths which were generally shared and accepted. Typical of neo-classical period. The metaphor was distrusted as a potentially falsifying device whose use ought to be sanctioned by social convention or decorum! Metaphor used to dress or embellish truths. It was even suggested in 1670 that an Act of Parliament should be introduced forbidding the use of ‘fulsome and luscious’ metaphors!

2. ‘The language of poets is vitally metaphorical; that is, it marks the before unapprehended relations of things, and perpetuates their apprehension, ….if no new poets should arise to create afresh the associations which have been thus disorganised, language will be dead to all the nobler purposes of human intercourse’. Percy Bysshe Shelley ‘A Defence of Poetry’ 1821
The Romantic Poets believed metaphor was the means of imaginative thought. They argued that poetry should not be restricted to saying old things in new ways, but could be made capable of creating new thoughts and ideas. In this view, thoughts and ideas are produced by metaphor rather than before it. Metaphor becomes a agency through which it becomes possible to transform our perceptions of the world.

3. In ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’, how does Keats suggest art is an important preserver of human emotion?

4. Neo-classical: Art cannot substitute guiding institutions like religion – it can only reflect life. Romantic: Art serves as guidance for humanity – in ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’, individual encouraged to view depictions on urn as an ideal by which to live.

5. Read ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ As the precursor to ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ how does Keats consider the importance of art in comparison?