<P> The urn is a "foster - child of silence and slow time" because it was created from stone and made by the hand of an artist who did not communicate through words . As stone, time has little effect on it and ageing is such a slow process that it can be seen as an eternal piece of artwork . The urn is an external object capable of producing a story outside the time of its creation, and because of this ability the poet labels it a "sylvan historian" that tells its story through its beauty: </P> <P> Sylvan historian, who canst thus express A flow'ry tale more sweetly than our rhyme: What leaf - fring'd legend haunts about thy shape Of deities or mortals, or of both, In Tempe or the dales of Arcady? What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape? What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? (lines 3--10) </P> <P> The questions presented in these lines are too ambiguous to allow the reader to understand what is taking place in the images on the urn, but elements of it are revealed: there is a pursuit with a strong sexual component . The melody accompanying the pursuit is intensified in the second stanza: </P> <P> Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: (lines 11--14) </P>

Summary of ode on a grecian urn by john keats