Ode On a Grecian Urn

Richards, I. A. (Ivor Armstrong), 1893-1979 · November 28, 1957

In this episode, "Professor and Lowell Television Lecturer at Harvard University" I. A. Richards reads and interprets Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and related works. He sits at a desk and addresses the camera; texts read at length scroll down the screen. Richards's discussion focuses on the relationship between beauty and truth, love and knowledge. The professor parses a number of poetic uses of term "beauty," proclaims that "Poetry, like music, is an art of sound," and announces that Keats's Urn represents "Life seen from the angle of death." Summary and select metadata for this record was submitted by John Marx & Mark Cooper. The prime aim of "The Sense of Poetry" is to put great poetry before the public for whom simultaneous reading and listening offers a clearer presentation than either can apart. This series of eight lectures by Harvard Professor I.A. Richards gives background and insight, and will provide an exciting introduction to poetry that will capture the imagination of almost any group.