Time

The main thing that captures the speaker's attention about this urn is that the figures on it are frozen in time in the middle of what they were do ing and they will remain there, unchanged, for eternity. The "bold lover" will never kiss the girl he is pursuing, but then, she will never age either. The boughs will never lose their leaves. The piper will be "For ever piping songs for ever new," and the ceremonial procession will always be on its way to the sacrifice. Of course, these claims are only true in the imaginary sense, since there are no real lovers, trees, musicians, or procession but only a picture of them; so it is not that they will always be doing what they are but that they never have. In asking us to take the leap of imagination that would let us pretend that these...