Critical Appreciation of the poem ‘A Thing of Beauty Is a Joy For Ever’ by John Keats

 A Thing of Beauty Is a Joy For Ever

                                                    By   John Keats

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:

Its loveliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness; but still will keep

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing?

A flowery band to bind us to the earth,

Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth

Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,

Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkn’d ways

Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,

Some shape of beauty moves away the pall

From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,

Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon

For simple sheep; and such are daffodils

With the green world they live in; and clear rills

That for themselves a cooling covert make

‘Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,

Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:

And such too is the grandeur of the dooms

We have imagined for the mighty dead;

An endless fountain of immortal drink,

Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.

                                  Critical Appreciation of the poem ‘A Thing of Beauty Is a Joy For Ever’ by John Keats

                      The excerpt, “A Thing of Beauty Is a Joy For Ever” by John Keats, taken from a larger poem ‘Endymion: an idyllic Romance is written in the Romantic way of composing.

                                The central theme of the poem is beauty –Earthly beauty and spiritual beauty. The poet describes here how beauty can be found everywhere in life; as such he draws a list of beautiful things which include: the sun, the moon, trees, daffodils, musk rose, blossoms etc. The artist’s message is that beauty can change our lives; it can disperse negativism and dim contemplation. Beauty can likewise eliminate the sting from sadness, it can also help one survive even when there is a ‘dearth of noble natures’ or when one is encircled by unfriendly and malicious individuals.

                                It belongs to the romantic genre with a rhyming scheme:  aabb. The poet has involved the iambic pentameter to beautify poem mostly. In the poem, ‘Endymion’, the mythical character has a tone of a desire for a romantic self-transcendence that targets melding his own self with the embarrassment of enormous creation.

                                 ‘The fountain in heaven’ is a metaphor for the source of spiritual beauty.  “And such too is the grandeur of the dooms

                                 We have imagined for the mighty dead.” Here the ‘grandeur of the dooms’ of the ‘mighty dead’ is a metaphor for bravery, sacrifice and selflessness.

                        This poem contains a powerful image of earthly beauty in the lines, ‘are we wreathing a flowery band to bind us to the earth.’ This is an image that makes a picture of the comprehensive wonderfulness, a band; however that traps us to the earth. A marvelous sight of any thing is actually a full of sensory images.

                                   “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever

                                     Its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness;”

This line implies that as we realize that our lives are loaded with different tests and preliminaries, and we frequently end up amidst despair, at that moment only lovely articles can assist us with forgetting our mistake, disdain and hopelessness. So I like these lines mostly.

                                     The poet John Keats in a lucid language expresses that a thing which is beautiful is always a matter of delight, gaiety and joy. It never stops or gets less. Beauty lies everywhere and in everything. It is a source of continuous joy and it never fades or passes into nothingness. Beauty is a magical drink that has the ability to transform lives, thoughts and health Beautiful things are like a medicine of life which is a precious gift from heaven.