appreciation of a thing of beauty is a joy forever
Answers
A ‘Thing of Beauty by John Keats is a beautiful poem with a beautiful message. The poem is an excellent example of true poetry. The poet feels that the presence of beautiful things in our life is a source of perennial joy for us. The joy they give us keeps increasing. It always remains in our hearts and will never leave us.
The beautiful things are like a shady bower of shade and quietness for us; they are like sleep full of sweet dreams for us; they are health for us; and they are quiet breathing for us.
Beautiful things inspire and motivate us to live through the sorrows, sadness, and loneliness of life. Though there is lack of noble souls around us, we still continue to live optimistically for better days ahead. The beautiful things in our life keep us hopeful and optimistic.
There comes time when we feel so forlorn and lonely. We fall ill at times; we also have to tread the dark ways and alleys of life searching for purpose, meaning and our lost balance; we bear all these ravages of life. During these trying times beautiful things keep infusing us with courage, strength and grit.
The natural world is full of such beautiful things. The sun, the moon, the trees and its shade for the beautiful docile sheep, the daffodils and the green meadows around them, all these are beautiful things.
The streams flowing down mountains and passing through forests, the musk roses blooming by the side of these streams; all of them are beautiful things in our life.
The graves of great people whose life was a tale of struggle and inspiration; the poet feels the fountain of beauty is falling down from the edge of heaven. We humans are drinking it and living.
‘A thing of beauty is a joy forever’, is an excerpt taken from the poem titled, ‘Endymion’, composed by the eminent poet John Keats. It is based on Greek Mythology and was first published in 1818. The rhyme scheme followed throughout the poem is ‘aabbcc’. My favourite line from the poem is, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever”, which also happens to be the title of the poem, where poet says that beauty is eternal and it never fades away.
The central idea conveyed through the poem is that beauty is everlasting and will enhance with the passage of time. It is a source of perennial joy for us. One can keep relishing the sweetness contained in things of beauty which will never cease to delight us. They are like endless gifts that pour down like nectar from heaven and gladden the beholder.
The beauty of this poem is enriched manifold using various figures of speech such as Alliteration, Metaphor, Climax, Assonance, Consonance, Antithesis, Anticlimax, etc. that are very simple to understand, yet they result in a rich creation. The poem is written in rhyming couplet. The special features comprise use of symbols like ‘sheep’ which are used to symbolise the innocence of mankind, references to ‘heaven’ as the source of these beautiful gifts, Judgement day, etc. reflect the religious attitude of the poet.
I like the poem for its subtle use of simplistic and contemplative elements. It creates an old world charm through use of Biblical references. It is an eternally hopeful poem.