Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn - Presentation

There is a use of common working class coloquIalisms such as 'buff' and 'gaezer,' a way for the speaker to criticise and make fun of a culture that he is so outside of.

It is interesting to note that the 'kids' of stanza one are now 'these children'. The narrator has moved from contempt to protectiveness

The speaker rejects Keat's traditional view that everything on the urn is perfect and picturesque. It is not sufficient to simply see a snapshot of life and admire it. This poem goes further into the detail and danger of the childrens lives.

The dash in the penultimate line forms a caesura, a pause, after which the rhythm is disrupted and the line is one syllable short of the established pattern. There is clearly a different culture among rich people.

The plosive 'p' words create a sense of frustration and anger that mimics the attitude of the older generation.

The use of the phrase 'crude games of chlamydia roulette' presents the idea of a disregard for future consequences of health. In some ways, the speaker aims to make fun of the idea that modern day culture will last, due to the youthful inability to plan ahead.

The insanity and mentalness portrayed in the word ‘bedlam’ highly contrasts ‘the queens highway’, where everyone metaphorically and physically ‘stays in their line’ and are in a uniform and orderly fashion. This shows that the speaker sees these youthful members of society as responsible for the corruption of society and the move towards moral chaos.

The ‘kids’ are from ‘crap’ housing estates. That they ‘flail’ their ‘motors’ suggests the cars are pushed to the limit, without thought for the damage they might do. The impression is of youthful irresponsibility. It establishes the theme of class barriers and alienation.

'The screech of tyres and the nervous squeals of girls, too young to quite appreciate the peril they are in, are heard, but these wheels will not lose traction, skid and flip, no harm befall these children. They will stay out late'

Important Quotes

'Each girl is buff, each geezer toned and strong, charged with pulsing juice which, even yet, fills every pair of Calvin's and each thong, never to be deflated, given head in crude games of chlamydia roulette.'

'There dogs set up a row and curtains twitch as pensioners and parents telephone the cops to plead for quiet, sue for peace - tranquility, though, is for the rich.'

'delineating tales of kids in cars on crap estates, the Burberry clad louts who flail their motors through the smoky night from Manchester to Motherwell or Slough, creating bedlam on the Queen's highway.'

'Roulett' gives a sense of randomness and impersonability to young sex, suggesting the downfall of committed traditional relationships.

The frenetic energy is conveyed through the 'screech of tyres' and 'nervous squeals' — these images are portrayed by Grayson Perry on his vase. The young people are reckless drivers, and therefore 'in peril', but this will not be played out in reality. The static nature of the urn reflects the idea that these children feel immortalised and unable to come to harm - 'no harm befall these children.'

The towns named have (unfairly) generally unappealing reputations, it may also be a reference to the environmental consequences of the actions of younger generations.

There is a combined use of monosyllabic words and harsh ‘c’ sound creates a highly cynical view of the estates and almost mimics an angry spitting way of talking.

Semantic field of stereotypical inner city and urban culture, juxtaposed with the semantic field of "pensioners and parents' ' can be seen as creating a sense of inter-generational and inter-class contrast, emphasising the transition between these different elements of society. This can be interpreted as generating a consideration for perspective, which is an idea that is explored further in the final stanza of the poem as a more considerate tone is developed

1. Ecstasy

The Poem

The mention of 'ecstasy' creates the image of rebellious and reckless youth. Turnbull uses the idea of ecstasy as a metaphor for youth because it has a long lasting high but the drug eventually wears off, leaving them with a lower mood. This mirrors growing up and facing the consequences of the decisions made as a young person.

And so, millennia hence, you garish crock,

when all context is lost, galleries razed

to level dust and we're long in the box,

will future poets look on you amazed,

speculate how children might have lived when

you were fired, lives so free and bountiful

and there, beneath a sun a little colder,

declare How happy were those creatures then,

who knew the truth was all negotiable

and beauty in the gift of the beholder.

Imagery

forever, pumped on youth and ecstasy,

on alloy, bass and arrogance, and speed

the back lanes, the urban gyratory,

the wide motorways, never having need

to race back home, for work next day, to bed.

Each girl is buff, each geezer toned and strong,

charged with pulsing juice which, even yet,

fills every pair of Calvin’s and each thong,

never to be deflated, given head

in crude games of chlamydia roulette.

Now see who comes to line the sparse grass verge,

to toast them in Buckfast and Diamond White:

rat-boys and corn-rowed cheerleaders who urge

them on to pull more burn-outs or to write

their donut Os, as signature, upon

the bleached tarmac of dead suburban streets.

There dogs set up a row and curtains twitch

as pensioners and parents telephone

the cops to plead for quiet, sue for peace -

tranquility, though, is for the rich.

Hello! What's all this here? A kitschy vase

some Shirley Temple manqué has knocked out

delineating tales of kids in cars

on crap estates, the Burberry clad louts

who flail their motors through the smoky night

from Manchester to Motherwell or Slough,

creating bedlam on the Queen's highway.

Your gaudy evocation can, somehow,

conjure the scene without inducing fright,

as would a Daily Express exposé,

can bring to mind the throaty turbo roar

of hatchbacks tuned almost to breaking point,

the joyful throb of UK garage or

of house imported from the continent

and yet educe a sense of peace, of calm -

the screech of tyres and the nervous squeals

of girls, too young to quite appreciate

the peril they are in, are heard, but these wheels

will not lose traction, skid and flip, no harm

befall these children. They will stay out late

2. Russian Roulette

'Chlamydia roulette' emphasises that the symptoms of chlamydia are hard to distinguish, but the youth continue to play the game because of the pleasure it gives them. The imagery of roulette could also suggest that life is like a huge gamble, and you never know what you're going to get.

Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn

Tim Turnbull

Overview

Structure and Form

This poem is structured in a similar way to Keats' ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’, both having five stanzas and ten lines per stanza. Both also have complex rhyme schemes; Turnbull’s pattern for all five stanzas is ABABCDEDCE.

The metrical rhythm is iambic pentameter, that is, five iambs or metrical feet per line, where a iamb is one unstressed followed by one stressed syllable. Used by Keats and Shakespeare, the metre usually creates a sense of elegance and solemnity. Turnbull’s poem, however, is humorous and satirical.

Frequent use of enjambment between lines and between stanzas creates a rapid, free flow of humorous, somewhat cynical narrative.

The ‘traditional’ rigid stanza structure may be seen by some readers as effectively juxtaposing old and new ideas, and could be particularly effective at indicating a traditional poem, when in fact the content is very contemporary.

Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn is a satire poem that explores post-modern culture. Turnbull's poetry is designed to be read aloud as performance pieces. This poem is inspired by a vase made by Grayson Perry, who created ceramics that explored social norms and culture. As a parody of John Keat's "Ode on a Grecian Urn," the poem adopts a similar style to Keat's work by zooming in on the speaker's perspective of the vase. Turnbull adopts a colloquial and humourous tone in this exploration of the human experience.

British Culture and Class

The Power of Art

The Thrill of Youth

Themes

One of the main focuses of the poem is how art can preserve fleeting moments for eternity, and arguably captures the most appealing and idealized versions of history (making them seem like a romanticised dream).

The vase in the poem leaves out the threat and danger that comes from the activity of the carefree youth, and even glamourises their poverty.

Turnbull explores the influence that art has on our perspective of society, and how art's power can cause us to ignore the challenges of society by glamourising the simple aspects of our culture.

“Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn” laughs at the deep-rooted British class system. By observing the way that so-called low culture transforms into high culture over time, the poem suggests that there’s something silly about the whole idea of dividing a society into low and high at all.

The world depicted on the Grayson Perry vase is the world of the British working class at the beginning of the 21st century. The teenage “louts” who party on the side of this vase live on the lower rungs of British society: they grow up on “crap estates”. Around them, a respectable middle-class world of “dead suburban streets” looks on in outrage.

The speaker, who’s admiring art pottery in a gallery, comes across as a member of the educated British middle class. But their sympathy is clearly with the kids in the street, who express wild joy in spite of their rough lives. The speaker doesn’t just value these kids’ energy, they realize that the cultural divisions that separate them from their neighbours are just plain silly. The signs of class that Perry records on his vase won’t mean a thing. Instead, only a record of the kids’ liveliness and youthful exuberance will endure.

The Grayson Perry vase that the poem is inspired by portrays the freedom of youth through teenagers who are enjoying themselves and are living care free lives of their adolescent years.

Turnbull explores how the vase captures what it is like to live without the burdens and responsibilities of being a teen, but focuses on the wild and fun side.

The vase depicts the teens as frozen in their young, beautiful and carefree state, as if their youth was eternal.

Turnbull explores what it would be like to be free from the consequences of your actions as a youth as they are able to do whatever they want thoughtlessly.