Question

Read this adapted excerpt from a famous poem by John Keats. This poem is about a beautiful vase with intricate shapes and patterns.
You, silent form, do tease us out of thought
As does eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
You shall remain, in the middle of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom you say,
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,”—that is all
You know on earth, and all you need to know.

What is the poet saying when he writes that “old age shall this generation waste”?



The poet is saying that beauty is illusionary and short-lived.



The poet is expressing his dread of growing older.



The poet is saying that people don’t live long; life is brief.



The poet is mourning the changes he sees in his “generation.”

Answer 1

I think it would be d.The poet is mourning the changes he sees in his “generation.”

Answer 2

What is the poet saying when he writes that “old age shall this generation waste”?

The correct answer is, The poet is saying that people don’t live long; life is brief.

• This is the correct answer because in, Ode on a Grecian Urn, John Keats, 1819,  he refers to the vase as something eternal, as something that will contemplate our nearer end. The writer contrasts the eternal endurance of the vase with our brief lives. “You shall remain in the middle of other woe” again this contrast explains that the beautiful vase will last forever while watching our grief and distress, this is our brief lives. “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” The vase in the poem represents beauty, the truth of life, and the truth of life is not something that perishes like flowers in a vase, it is the vase in itself the truth what contains the perishable.