Mortality Realizations

I feel like this is the first time that I have felt totally comfortable writing my post for the week.  Maybe it is because I have studied Keats before, maybe it is because I had to do research for my presentation, or maybe it is just his subject matter that I relate better to.  What jumped out at me was the constant reference to man's mortality.  I preferred the approach through "Ode On A Grecian Urn" more than "Two Sonnets: To Haydon, With A Sonnet Written On Seeing The Elgin Marbles".  In "Urn" it is the reverential tone of the immortal that highlights the mortal life.  All of the things on the urn shall last for eternity, whereas the appreciation of the audience is fleeting.  I like that this shows the urn as a stable and strong object.  In "Elgin Marbles" Keats reflects on his mortality in a very harsh, cacophonous way that is almost unsettling to the reader.  He compares himself to a sick eagle (5) and describes his mortality as an "unwilling sleep".  In "Urn" he discusses the better qualities of immortality, like the lovers who will always love and never grow old or the branches that will never be bare.  At least for me this reading made me feel at ease with my "fate", perhaps it was the final lines that tied it all together for me.  I enjoyed all three poems, but "Ode on a Grecian Urn" will always be one of my favorites.