I really enjoyed reading Keats. I was able to actually read and reread and reread again with his poetry without getting completely annoyed. My favorite of his poems was Ode on a Grecian Urn. In stanza’s II and III I liked the concept that the beauty is eternal, because it’s on the urn. The young lovers’ maiden will always be fair, and they will always be happy because time stands still. They’re stuck in that moment. Outside of the idea of being forever beautiful on this urn it says,
“Mortal passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloyed,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue”
Really I just liked the way that sounds so I decided to quote it so if it doesn’t fit with what I’m getting to, but essentially it’s saying that outside of this urn, outside of these moments of beauty, passion fades into “a burning forehead and a parching tongue”. It’s kind of like “Nothing Gold Can Stay”: beauty is not immortal and happiness is not eternal.
The final lines of the poem were so intriguing to me.
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty, --that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”
I wouldn’t say that I have a full understanding of what that means but this is just my thought process on it. I thought of Plato’s Allegory of The Cave and how they knew nothing else but these shadows they saw, so maybe it’s the same idea. If all someone sees is this Urn and it represents beauty- frozen, timeless, beauty- then that’s your truth. Maybe it’s not all that there is but it’s all that is seen, ergo, all that is known. And if it’s all that is known then it’s your truth… right? But then again no one is being tied down and forced to stare at only this urn, still I’m perplexed because if he’s saying finding truth is beauty I’m lost as to where truth is represented in this poem. It’s a man looking at an urn and seeing moments in time, perfect moments then he doesn’t see passion fading, or youth growing old and decaying (which is basically what happens as you get older. Just saying) and aren’t those things just as real as the beauty represented on the urn? I have reached no conclusion at this point, and thus I’m still completely in the dark. Everyone talks about this seeing the light moment and I’ve yet to reach that point.
P.S I commented on Danielle's "This is basically what I’ve been mulling over in class for the past few weeks."
You explained how the people on the Urn are forever happy or they are "stuck in the moment". Keats looks at these pictures and imagines what it's like to be always happy, stuck at the best part of experiences. He sees that in human time, after the "top of the mountain" is reached, then comes the downfall. In the real world happiness and beauty eventually end. Life goes on. Wouldn't it be cool if it didn't? If we could just be stuck happy forever? But if God had intended that for us, He would have given us that. We have to eventually come back to reality of the trials and heartache around us.
ReplyDeleteBy “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, --that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”, I think the speaker means that all the Urn and these people know is beauty since they are timeless. They don't know about all the pain going on in the real world, so beauty is their truth. It's all they will ever know.
Kaylie, I have been just as confused as you about the "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" part of the poem. I have reasoned through it over and over, and I have approached it from many different angles. But, no matter what I come up with it never seems to do it justice. One of my many incomplete ideas is that both truth and beauty are timeless as is the urn. I am looking for the Aha moment too!
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this, like you both, I saw the deep meaning and the digging deeper message that you can get out of this, but also the cynic in me wants to just say that he is being sarcastic and making fun of these people. But I have to learn to balance those two things. But, also like you two, I don’t really understand what he means by that phrase. Any thoughts anyone?
ReplyDeleteHonestly I think that Keats, when he said beauty it truth... was trying to make a parallel between the distant, detached urn and our own perception. We "see" so many things without seeing them for what they are. When we begin to look at things this way, we begin to see true beauty. Keats saw past the urn and into the stories in it. Albeit, he failed miserably at this (See my post) he still was able to point out that much more exists outside of our own perception.
ReplyDeleteKelsey, honestly I didn't even consider that he could be being sarastic. I think I'm getting sucked into the idea of romance too much.
ReplyDeleteCody, Well I wouldn't say he thinks that the urn is distant or detached exactly, because he says in the first stanza "A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme" which, unless im completely wrong, is basically him saying that the images on the urn say more than words could. It's called Ode on a Grecian Urn too, maybe that doesn't mean an ode about a Grecian urn but rather the ode is literally on the Grecian urn, as in the ode itself is the Grecian urn (if that makes sense. As I'm explaining it in my head there are hand motions that differenciate the two). But I think I get what you're saying, because he is looking past just pictures and is seeing the stories that are depicted. I wouldn't say he failed though... I'm a Keats fan I think.