"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,"--that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. ("Ode on a Grecian Urn" lines 49-50)
I liked the discussion we had in class on Tuesday about these lines and what they could possibly mean. I don't know if we'll all ever agree on what they mean, just as we discussed. Beauty and truth are both up for interpretation; they are, as the cliche goes, in the eye of the beholder.
To me, this statement is one of those universal knowns, something that just is. Whatever is beautiful, whatever anyone calls beautiful, is truth. And vise versa. We wonder at "true beauty" and whether it really is only skin deep, or just on the surface. Do we wonder the same thing about what we consider to be true. Is it true for right now or is it eternally true? I don't expect to get an answer here. Again, I think this is something we'll never have a definite answer to, and yet is universally accepted as fact. That, in an of itself, is a bit of a conundrum!
What a wonderful, thought-provoking line, though. It almost forces us to think outside the box and try to define for ourselves what beauty and truth really are.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment