ne figure on the side of the urn, a female about to be ravished but throughout time never being ravished because the moment is frozen. She exists in an eternal state that can never be changed--the moment will never go forward and can never go back. The poets asks a series of questions in the first stanza which serves to draw the attention of the reader to the various images on the side, to the issues being raised, and to an apparent puzzle at this stage--why is the poet asking these questions? This is answered in the course of the poem. The poet describes many of the images and speculates about the melody unheard, the moment unfinished, and the youth unfulfilled. Timelessness is evoked again and again and compared with the transitory nature of this world:
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on (11-12)
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