"Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter"

This famous line 'Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter' appears in John Keats' 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' (1819), a quintessential Romantic poem reflecting on the permanence of art versus the transience of life. Keats argues that the imagination's power exceeds sensory experience - the frozen musical scene on the Grecian urn is more beautiful than any actual music that fades. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) wrote plays and sonnets in the Renaissance era. William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was a Romantic contemporary best known for 'Tintern Abbey' and 'Lucy' poems. Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) wrote in the late Victorian/Edwardian era.