ShmoopTube

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Here's your shmoop du jour, brought to you by the Foster-Child of Silence. In that house,

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you speak when spoken TO. Which... isn't often.

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As which of the following is the object being personified?

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And here are the potential answers...

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All right... so we've got this poem -- Ode on a Grecian Urn.

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Who knows what this urn did to warrant an entire ode. We feel there are plenty of vases

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and other decorative containers that are more deserving, but... hey, that's just us...

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Anyway, the question is telling us that the object is personified as at least one of three things.

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In other words, the urn is compared to either a bride, a child, or a priest.

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Again... we don't see how that's much of a compliment.

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But okay, let's take a look at the text...

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Well, right away, in line 1, the urn is compared to a bride.

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"THOU still unravish'd bride of quietness..."

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Hm... we're not sure "quietness" is really a quality the author should be assigning to

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brides in general...

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...but regardless, this one is a definite "yes."

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Then, on line 2, he says:

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"Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time,.."

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So... now the urn's a child.

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Wow. This urn has quite a diverse set of personalities. We're beginning to see why it got its own

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ode...

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The third one is where they try to getcha.

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There is a mention of a priest... on line 32:

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"To what green altar, O mysterious priest..."

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...but if we carefully read the lines around it, we realize that the priest is actually

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a character on the urn... the urn itself is not being compared to a priest.

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So looks like Roman Numerals One and Two work and Three doesn't...

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...which makes our answer option A.

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If you got this one right, treat yourself to a bowl of ice cream as a reward. Go ahead

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-- you've urned it.

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