Denamarie Ercolani

"...we find a more indescribable, and perhaps less easily resolvable, feud between Keats's desire to 'know' the urn, to understand what it says and his suspicion that any such access to the meanings the urn once actually had in its culture would in fact seriously threaten its status as a distinct 'form,' or 'shape,' or coherent aesthetic object" (389).

It is suspected that Keats believes that it is better that off if the urn is left untouched and unknown. The mystery of the urn is the best part. The urn matters soo much to Keats because of his ignorance about it. It has not occured to anyone that Keats is attempting to read, rather thatn imagine, the urn. The ode does not give us the kind of concretely sensuous description of its object that we may have come to expect from Keats.