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(Paraphrased assignment: Write a 600 word essay comparing "Ode on a Grecian Urn" to "Go Down, Moses," and explain how the poem accentuates the book, yadda yadda, something like that. Actually, this was one of four or five topics we could choose from, and this one seemed to require the least amount of knowledge of the book. I read neither the book nor the very short poem, yet I still managed an A- thanks to predictable storylines, predictable usage of symbols, and predictable teacher expectations.)

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," concludes Keats’ poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn." Truth is forever emblazoned on Keats’ Grecian urn; the facts never change, the painted trees shall never lose their leaves, the maiden shall always remain fair and beautiful. These images are forever captured at their echelon of highest perfection. The urn stands to remind man of this beauty, which Keats suggests leads to a higher knowledge and greater understanding of the human condition. Truth and beauty are harmoniously coeval. This theme is used by Faulkner in "The Bear", as is another important theme present in both works: that of the chase versus the capture.

Legendary Old Ben is just as much of a symbolic force of nature as he is the object of a ritualistic hunt. He is practically immortal and indomitable, both in the physical sense and in the metaphysical, as the spirit and essence of Old Ben seems to linger far after his death. He has the ability to inflict mayhem on human establishments. The hunters are symbolic of man’s possessive desire to restrain and conquer nature. In a way, Old Ben is a symbol of beauty. He is the essence of nature and he is uncontaminated from society and civilization. Old Ben exhibits freedom. When he falls to the hands of Boon, "truth" is manifest. Isaac believed that his life must live up to and be worthy of the animal whose own life was sacrificed. Therefore, Old Ben’s death was perhaps a source for Ike’s commitment to nature and to hunting. Ike internalizes the embodiment of Old Ben. This oneness with nature is the "truth" that Keats explains follows "beauty." Ike finds out the truth about his birthright, and in the spirit that "the earth was no man’s but all men’s" (3), he repudiates his inheritance.

Perhaps one of the more evident themes in both "The Bear" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is that of the journey versus the destination. One of the images depicted on the urn is of a youth about to kiss his love. He is forever frozen in that moment of anticipation preceding a kiss. The images on the urn give no indication of what is to follow, only what is about to immediately occur. The trees on the urn are also caught in a stage of apprehensive anticipation between autumn and death. This situation parallels that of Ike and the hunters. Even when they have an opportunity to put an end to their indefinitely long hunt, they choose not to and rationalize it with "There’s always next year." They seem to appreciate the prospect more than the killing. In fact, when Old Ben’s death puts an end to their hunt, the outcome is rather anticlimactic (especially when Old Ben’s hunter, Boon Hogganbeck, is portrayed at the end practically as a madman, furiously trying to protect his squirrels from the bullets of another hunter), thus accentuating Faulkner’s emphasis on the importance of the hunt and not the kill.

Both Faulkner and Keats recognize some essential facets to the condition of civilization: that of the interlacing link between truth and beauty, and that of the importance of a journey moreso than the destination. Keats purposefully uses the images on the Grecian urn to link abstract pictures to a physical world around them, illustrating the connections between these themes. Faulkner expanded upon Keats’ concise poem and explicated these ideas in a story highly regarded by many, "The Bear."