Ode worthy | 3 November 2016

In Competition No. 2972 you were invited to supply an ode on a Grayson Perry urn. Frank McDonald wasn’t keen: ‘Do Grayson Perry urns deserve an ode?/ Has modern art not shamed the Muse enough?/ That looks for beauty in a tortured toad/ And loads our galleries with frightful stuff?’ Elsewhere, the entry was chock-full of adroit Keatsian references. The deserving winners take £20 each.
 
A form of classic shape and grace,
Here covered in graffiti style,
Which offers us a Janus face,
Half snarl, half smile.
It looks at once both butch and fey;
A line that joins the modish dots
To illustrate a crafty way
Of making pots.
It’s true, of course, that ancient Greeks
Made lust and war a common theme
On vases not the chaste antiques
Of Keatsian dream.
But potters then worked namelessly,
Content as artists to exult
In god-sent skills, not aim to be
Themselves a cult.
W.J. Webster
  
Thou still unvarnished piece of crockery!
Calm and serene in Keatsian quietness,
Your silent form will brook no mockery,
Your flowery tale matches the potter’s dress.