Beauty is truth, truth Beauty
Thats all ye need to know on earth! -KEATS.
There exist innumerable definitions and quotations regarding what
beauty really is! A number of philosophers poets and thinkers have tried to
define it yet there exists such a wide gap between their teachings that one
ecomes skeptical of all. Though skepticism is no conclusion, needless to
ky that it is identifiable, according to ones personal perceptions but with
o solid definition. To some people like Socrates “Beauty is short lived tyranny”, some
like Tolsty declared it as delusion. There are people who reject physical
appearance and considers beauty as skin deep. To some, it is facial beauty,
pleasing to each individual, not only this but there also exists various
concepts like beauty is deception, it is an illusion and subsequently beauty
is happiness and to some like Khalil Jibran “Beauty is mirror”
WHAT IS BEAUTY.
After all these puzzling descriptions, one is bound to ask, what
really beauty is? Could we give a universal definition to this complex
phenomena or is it a relative term, defined in terms of being in the eye of
beholder?
Before arriving at some solid conclusion, it is mandatory to observe
what are the constituents of Beauty and even before that where do we find
beauty?
Beauty is present in a face, especially that of woman. It is present in
human body. Beauty is there in object (life less). It is present in animals,
in addition, it is present in natural surroundings. It exists in big fields
covered with lush green grass. Beauty is in big mountains and small hills.
Beauty is in a small child. It is visible in words and present in eyes and
almost in everything scattered around us.
But physically all these aspects differ from one an other. One cannot
say that the beauty of mountain is similar to the beauty of a woman.
Neither we could compare the beauty of a child with the beauty of ocean.
Now here we observe what are the basic constituents of a Beauty
and why man appreciates it. The reason behind this is perhaps due to the
fact that Beauty contains harmony and harmony is an additive of symmetry
and proportions, and it is indubitable that a human being appreciates
symmetry and harmony even when he cannot create such symmetry and
harmony.
It is this sense of symmetry and proportion which is appreciated by
a human eye where in broad term is called as Beauty. is also here,
where we can sort out the differences between those who deny that beauty
exists, like Tolsty. Socrates and Dente. To these individuals, there cannot
exist a perfect harmony. To them symmetry cannot be an exact match to
the proportion, while those who appreciate beauty, those who declare it as or mirror are in fact, those who strongly supports that symmetry
is possible.
This concept of symmetry and proportion has always been there.
One just has to look around for some historical aspects, take for example
“Badshahi Mosque”. It is not only considered as one of the biggest
mosques
of the world but also, one of the beautiful mosques as well.
Why? the reason is symmetry and proportion, which add up to harmony
and harmony is just another word for beauty. It is that beauty which
people appreciate otherwise old bricks and red colour is hardly a point of
IS BEAUTY ETERNAL OR TEMPORARY.
Keats in his first poem Endomynion (1818) said.
“A thing of Beauty is a joy forever”.
Its not that easy to see beauty as a joy forever, especially when in
our day to day life it gradually withers away. The life of a red rose is
hardly five to 10 days and to is the physical beauty which seeps away with
the passage of each day.
Under such circumstances it is difficult to realize that Beauty is not
a fleeting moment but an eternal bliss. In order to arrive at this
conclusion, one has to observe the philosophy of John Keats behind this.
KEATS PHILOSOPHY OF BEAUTY.
One of the dominant characteristics of Poetry is “Beauty”. Poets
have always been the lover of beauty. But in the poetry of Keats this has
been dominant of all themes.
Keats at first is viewed as appreciating beauty in its concrete sense
through his senses but later his concept of Beauty became more
intellectual. Instead of worshipping the beauty, he began to worship the
mighty idea of abstract beauty that appealed to the mind and imagination,
which in fact passes beyond the world of senses to the world of eternity.
To which Shelley happens to call “Intellectual beauty” in one of his
Hymns.
Keats has variously described this concept, for example, in his “Ode
to Nightingale” It was merely a song of nightingale which enchanted his
cars but gradually he passes into another work where this beauty remains
forever whereas this song was only a symbol. Secondly his concept of Beauty was not limited, it was taken as
whole with all its ugly and beautiful parts as he described in his “Ode to
Melancholy” He finds melancholy even in the sweetest things of life.
Here it is important to note that this kind of beauty remain eternal.
A beauty that lives in your imagination can never be erased. It is perhaps
this notion that a human being creates in his mind as an ideal.
An ideal always lives with one’s imagination. Such ideal can be of
ones destination or one’s idea about his or her life pasture. Such ideals are
not only harmony i.e. symmetry and proportions but also morality,
nobility & goodness.
The idea of such beauty is nonetheless “a joy forever” it cannot be
erased nor could there be any change in the concept of beauty, it remains
forever the same and if something remains forever in the same state,
which is appreciated then such state, including all its constituent is beauty
coupled with eternity with a joy forever.
IS BEAUTY A TRUTH.
“Poetry is not the assertion of truth but the making of that truth
-T.S. ELIOT more fully real to us”
To Keats this was revealed in the “Ode to Gracious Urn” that beauty
is truth.
In this ode imagination reveals a new aspect of beauty. A beauty
which is higher than the beauty of Cleopatra, more profound than the
Heaven and any beauty present on the surface of earth, i.e. the essence of
beauty extracted by the imagination out of that fleeting moment which
eliminates the beauty, It is that seized essence which is truth.
Human life will go on, people will come and appreciate the beauty
present around them but beauty remains there it does not remains like that
“Gracious Urn”. It will contain the beauty forever, generations will come
and will view its beauty. It is that beauty which is seized by the artist of
that Urn.
Thus such is the beauty present in Lenardo De Vincils “Mona Lisa”
which is eternal such is the beauty present in the giant Tower of Pasis
Dasa in Italy, this will be the beauty, eternal, when some artist would
seize a moment of its imaginations and the beauty around him. Conclusion:-
“It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded all the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, most be the truth”
ARTHER CANON DOYLE.
One cannot help but to agree with Keats that beauty is truth, truth
beauty. It is true that Beauty remains eternal when seized by the
imagination the concept of beauty forwarded by Keats has moral nobility.
In this noble sense beauty becomes one with truth and goodness.
Another important thing to note is that Beauty is always appreciated
because of its harmony and such harmony has stability, (a falsity is always
viable) while stability derives truth, it is truth which stands still and erects
forever in this connection, beauty also remains forever, while whatever
remains forever and unchanged is truth.
