‘A thing of beauty is a joy forever’-John Keats ENDYMION poem analysis-form, rhyme, & open couplets

Reading & analysis of the opening of John Keats’s poem ‘Endymion: A Poetic Romance’ (1818), which begins “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever”. What is ‘Beauty’ for John Keats? How does John Keats use the form of rhymed open couplets (& one closed couplet) to convey a sense of excess & fullness (that “loveliness increases”)? And does the end of the verse paragraph in fact undermine the notion that a thing of beauty is a joy forever whose loveliness is endlessly increasing? Romanticism was preoccupied with beauty being a bulwark against pensive moods, as well as with breaking open the closed heroic couplet form that had dominated in 18th century poetry, such as in the poems of Alexander Pope. The lecture provides a line-by-line reading of the opening verse paragraph of Endymion, outlines how John Keats plays with form, rhyme, & open, closed & heroic couplets, and explains why a thing of beauty is a joy forever (with a little help from William Wordsworth’s daffodils poem, ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’). Analysis of John Keats’s poem Endymion.
If you’d like to support the channel, you can here
www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_...
Follow me on Twitter: / droctaviacox
CLOSE READING CLASSIC LITERATURE
#DrOctaviaCox
#UnfamiliarReadings
#CloseReadingClassicLiterature
FOR MORE LITERARY ANALYSIS see my ‘Close Reading Classic Literature’ playlist
• CLOSE READING CLASSIC ...
KEYWORDS
english literature analysis
a thing of beauty is a joy forever
endymion
john keats
a thing of beauty is a joy forever poem analysis
endymion keats
john keats a thing of beauty
endymion poem analysis
a thing of beauty is a joy for ever
john keats endymion poem
john keats a thing of beauty is a joy forever
poem by john keats a thing of beauty
endymion analysis
john keats a thing of beauty poem analysis
john keats endymion poem analysis
john keats poem a thing of beauty
endymion poem by john keats
a thing of beauty john keats
endymion a poetic romance
john keats analysis
a thing of beauty is a joy for ever poem analysis
english literature analysis
a thing of beauty is a joy forever
endymion
john keats
a thing of beauty is a joy forever poem analysis
endymion keats
john keats a thing of beauty
endymion poem analysis
a thing of beauty is a joy for ever
john keats endymion poem
john keats a thing of beauty is a joy forever
poem by john keats a thing of beauty
endymion analysis
john keats a thing of beauty poem analysis
john keats endymion poem analysis
john keats poem a thing of beauty
endymion poem by john keats
a thing of beauty john keats
endymion a poetic romance
john keats analysis
a thing of beauty is a joy for ever poem analysis
english literature analysis
a thing of beauty is a joy forever
endymion
john keats
a thing of beauty is a joy forever poem analysis
endymion keats
john keats a thing of beauty
endymion poem analysis
a thing of beauty is a joy for ever
john keats endymion poem
john keats a thing of beauty is a joy forever
poem by john keats a thing of beauty
endymion analysis
john keats a thing of beauty poem analysis
john keats endymion poem analysis
john keats poem a thing of beauty
endymion poem by john keats
a thing of beauty john keats
endymion a poetic romance
john keats analysis
a thing of beauty is a joy for ever poem analysis
english literature analysis
a thing of beauty is a joy forever
endymion
john keats
a thing of beauty is a joy forever poem analysis
endymion keats
john keats a thing of beauty
endymion poem analysis
a thing of beauty is a joy for ever
john keats endymion poem
john keats a thing of beauty is a joy forever
poem by john keats a thing of beauty
endymion analysis
john keats a thing of beauty poem analysis
john keats endymion poem analysis
john keats poem a thing of beauty
endymion poem by john keats
a thing of beauty john keats
endymion a poetic romance
john keats analysis
a thing of beauty is a joy for ever poem analysis
english literature analysis
a thing of beauty is a joy forever
endymion
john keats
a thing of beauty is a joy forever poem analysis
endymion keats
john keats a thing of beauty
endymion poem analysis
a thing of beauty is a joy for ever
john keats endymion poem
john keats a thing of beauty is a joy forever
poem by john keats a thing of beauty
endymion analysis
john keats a thing of beauty poem analysis
john keats endymion poem analysis
john keats poem a thing of beauty
endymion poem by john keats
a thing of beauty john keats
endymion a poetic romance
john keats analysis
a thing of beauty is a joy for ever poem analysis
english literature analysis
a thing of beauty is a joy forever
endymion
john keats
a thing of beauty is a joy forever poem analysis
endymion keats
john keats a thing of beauty
endymion poem analysis
a thing of beauty is a joy for ever
john keats endymion poem
john keats a thing of beauty is a joy forever
poem by john keats a thing of beauty
john keats endymion analysis

[@DrOctaviaCox]

If you like the work I do, then you can support it here: www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=D8LSKGJP2NL4N Thank you very much indeed for watching my channel.

[@hmw4644]

😊

[@francespyne7316]

Seems like Keats was outlining mindfulness before it was a thing, focus on the core of things that bring you peace (that what is beautiful at its core, not surface) and when things overwhelme that will bring you back to a better place I also have a new favorite word 'enjambment'

[@DrOctaviaCox]

Snap! I completely agree with you - I was thinking this very thing as I was contemplating the poem!

[@sitting_nut]

"mindfulness" "was a thing" for thousands of years.

[@buzzawuzza3743]

now I understand the poem better, thank you

[@DrOctaviaCox]

It's my pleasure - I'm glad the video helped.

[@taaptee]

You're the best I'm so grateful for you!!!! Thank you for doing this 🌹💚

[@DrOctaviaCox]

You're very welcome. I'm glad that you enjoy my videos.

[@bonniehagan9644]

I have enjoyed your channel immensely. Thank you for the clarity you bring to these classics! Your joy for the text comes through in your videos. It's been years since I've been able to participate in this sort of literary pursuit, and I'm very grateful for your expertise and your taking the time to share.

[@kathleenfleming7519]

Thank you for breaking it down- so I have a much better understanding of Keats and this particular poem.

[@DrOctaviaCox]

It's absolutely my pleasure, Kathleen.

[@mch12311969]

"Beauty is more profound. Beauty has more to do with elevating your soul, elevating your spirits." I can't really argue with this. It also seems that Keats is saying beauty is solitude.

[@DrOctaviaCox]

Yes, it's an interesting point - I suppose that anything which is to do with elevating your soul and spirits is bound by its nature to be solitary in one sense. In 'I wandered lonely as a cloud' Wordsworth talks explicitly of "solitude" and the speaker is the only human referred to in the poem - only "I", "my", and "me" are used - despite Wordsworth's sister Dorothy having been present when they first experienced the daffodils, as we know from her journal entry of 15 April 1802: "we saw a few daffodils close to the water-side. We fancied that the sea had floated the seeds ashore, and that the little colony had so sprung up. But as we went along there were more and yet more; and at last, under the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road. I never saw daffodils so beautiful. They grew among the mossy stones about and above them; some rested their heads upon these stones, as on a pillow, for weariness; and the rest tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind, that blew upon them over the lake; they looked so gay, ever glancing, ever changing." Unlike the solitary "I" in Wordsworth's poem, I find Keats's language here in Endymion to be (oddly?) communal: “keep | A bower quiet for us”, “are we wreathing”, “bind us”, “Made for our searching”, “our dark spirits”, “We have imagined for the mighty dead”, “tales that we have heard or read”, “Pouring unto us”. Keats's speaker does not use "I", "my", or "me" at all in the passage. In that sense, then, Keats changes Wordsworth's conception of the experience of beauty considerably, from a very determinedly solitary experience to a collective one. Many thanks for watching.

[@mhorram]

Keats lied about the poem being his own invention. He first considers the length of the poem, as you rightfully point out, and he builds it around the first line which is supposedly his invention. It is not! The line _"A Thing of Beauty is a Joy forever"_ is taken from line 881 of Euripides tragedy _The Bacchae_ . The Greek is _ὅ τι καλὸν φίλον ἀεί_ rendered into Latinized English as "ho ti kalon philon aei". This line translates into English as, "That which is beautiful [or good] is ever dear!" The Relevant passage from the Bacchae is: τί τὸ σοφόν; ἢ τί τὸ κάλλιον παρὰ θεῶν γέρας ἐν βροτοῖς ἢ χεῖρ᾽ ὑπὲρ κορυφᾶς τῶν ἐχθρῶν κρείσσω κατέχειν; ὅ τι καλὸν φίλον ἀεί The above roughly translates as: _What is wisdom? What is better than_ _The privileges mortals get from the Gods_ _To hold their powerful hands_ _Over their foes_ _A thing of beauty is every dear_ [The above may not be an exact translation; but it is very close. It has been 50 years since I studied Ancient Greek and Classical Greek] So, why would a line from Euripides Bacchae wend its way into Keats' Endymion? Well, in Keats' time an education in Classics was standard for the upper class. So, there was a good chance he came across the line during his required reading. Euripides used this wonderful line in a horrible context. Eventually it will lead to the 'hero' Pentheus being torn apart by the Bacchants, the followers of the God Dionysius. It makes sense that Keats was not a fan of this beautiful thought and how Euripides abused it. I think he decided to use the thought rightly and thereby use the line to show what Euripides could have done (had he been a better poet?). I have to say, the myth of Endymion is a far more apropos topic for _"ὅ τι καλὸν φίλον ἀεί"_ . AIso, I would suggest you missed one of the points of the myth and how it relates to Keats' preamble. The beauty is the story of a Titaness, pining over the eternally sleeping, mortal, Endymion, day after day, until time itself stops. In other words, the beauty increases because Selene will not abandon him or relinquish her unrequited love for the sleeping hero; but will watch over him and keep a bower quiet for him for all time. Day by day that loveliness increases! Regarding your discussion of the daffodil, keep in mind that they were held to be a symbol of life in ancient and classical Greek times. The Elysian fields were said to be full of them. As pointed out by one Internet site's discussion of the Daffodil _"daffodils and other species of Narcissi are rich with positive symbolism. As one of the first flowers to appear in early spring, the daffodil has come to be known as a symbol of new life, renewal, and new beginnings."_ www.petalrepublic.com/narcissus-flower-guide/ In similar fashion, the same article shows that the daffodil is connected to resurrection in Christianity: _"The prevalence of white Narcissi perhaps lends additional weight to the idea that they have religious significance, especially in relation to Christianity and the resurrection of Jesus"_ . www.petalrepublic.com/narcissus-flower-guide/ These last two points are just to amplify your point about Keats thinking about death (a different type of eternal sleep; but one that provides the hope of resurrection). One further thought on this particular issue is how some 'thinkers' thought of sleep, life and non-existence during Keats' time. Consider philosopher Heinrich Heine's observation _"Sleep is lovely, death is better still, not to have been born, is, of course, the miracle."_ Heine was a contemporary of Keats and may have had an influence on Keats' philosophy on life and death. Even if that is not the case they both may have been affected by shared intellectual predecessors. By the way, this was my favourite poem when I was young and I recited parts of it quite often to my friends (not that they cared). That is why I noticed line 881 of the Bacchae when I studied Classics decades ago. Soooooo, thanks Dr. Cox for making a poem worth remembering all the more memorable. Kudos.

[@keshavx]

One of my favorite poems by keats.

[@DrOctaviaCox]

Yes, there is much joy to be taken from this poem!

[@brassen]

Winter, rainy Friday 13th here in the southern hemisphere and my mind goes back to my youth days: "500 miles under snow, an UFO over a lake and in a gleam I see Keats standing next to Baudelaire" (lyrics, Max 500 by Kent)

[@alexhenry3435]

I think the "brink" is about life itself, there is an edge, a place it ends. It makes me think "have I wreathed a flowery band" or have I whinged about parking, walked past gardens, ignored birdsong and daffodils, & maybe I should adjust my life before I fall through/over/ beyond that brink

[@THE_ENGLISH_TEACHER_1608]

Your explanation helped me so much.

[@aansharmaa]

Thanks a lot for this beautiful explanation of the poem!

[@andreafisherwriter]

Thank you. I absolutely loved this. Yes, it is forever - in our never ending imagination.

[@Therika7]

I think of the phrase “heaven’s brink”, in conjunction with the endless fountain, as a sort of edge of a cup, but also the kind of fountain where a statue is pouring something out of a pitcher, or even those fountains I’ve seen in Zen gardens where the water pours in a sheet over the edge of something - like a waterfall, but contained, so that it does continuously pour over. … if that makes sense. But I still agree that it’s a good ending of the section. It’s got that sound. “Brink.”

[@jithins1816]

Now, I started loving poetry

[@ma.lailani8050]

Very informative and beautifully explained. Kudos ‼️

[@Tevildo]

An excellent analysis of the importance of the structure of the poem, as well as its vocabulary, to its meaning. I hadn't really appreciated how strong and positive the rhymes were, as they're so effectively "subverted" in the sentences that make up the poem - thanks for pointing this out! One question - is the transition from "musk-rose blooms" to "grandeur of the dooms" an example of bathos, or is there a better term for a transition from a light, pastoral subject to the serious topic of death and remembrance?

[@DrOctaviaCox]

Bathos is a really good way of describing it, yes - bathetic as outlined by Pope in Peri Bathos (1727). The word "dooms", especially, might well be seen as a comical (unintentionally) failed attempt at sublimity. The line refers to "grandeur", and the thought refers to the "mighty dead", which rather suggests that Keats was aiming for lofty poetic sublimity, but "dooms", as you imply, risibly jars with "blooms". It doesn't quite work. And Keats acknowledged in the Preface that Endymion was full of "error[s]": he writes that the reader will perceive "great inexperience, immaturity, and every error denoting a feverish attempt, rather than a deed accomplished" www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Endymion_a_Poetic_Romance/v50TAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq= I think this line shows this exactly.

[@Tevildo]

@@DrOctaviaCox Thanks again! We're back to the rhymes being significant but not obvious - I'd honestly never realized how central they are to the whole poem. In Pope's work, they're both significant and obvious, so it's easier to see what he uses them for - Keats requires a more detailed examination, and I'll always be very grateful to you for providing us with one. :)

[@DrOctaviaCox]

@@Tevildo Yes, absolutely - I think Keats really plays with rhyme - he gives a really strong rhyme but then encourages readers to read over it. I've been pondering over your point about bathos in Keats. I wonder if it is actually so unconscious (as I said yesterday), as moments of bathos seem to crop up in key moments in several of Keats's poems: "Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain- | To thy high requiem become a sod" (Ode to a Nightingale) "O Attic shape! Fair attitude!" (Ode on a Grecian Urn) I wonder if this is deliberate.

[@tigrinha83]

Can't wait to watch it today evening❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@DrOctaviaCox]

I hope you enjoy it and find it interesting.

[@HRJohn1944]

One quick point: the manuscript of Wordsworth's "Daffodils" shows "A host of dancing daffodils" - when did this become "golden"? Enjoyed this tremendously - I must watch it again

[@Tevildo]

Wordsworth changed "dancing" to "golden", along with other changes and the addition of the second verse ("Continuous as the stars that shine") with the publication of "Collected Poems" in 1815. The original ("dancing") version was published in "Poems in Two Volumes" in 1807.

[@DrOctaviaCox]

So pleased that you enjoyed the video. Many thanks for watching. Wordsworth's poem was originally composed c.1804, and you can see from the manuscript that line four was originally "A host of dancing Daffodils". The manuscript is available on the British Library website here: www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126751.html The line remained the same (apart from the punctuation) in the published 1807 edition ('Poems in Two Volumes'), which you can see here: www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Poems_in_Two_Volumes/hNc_AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq= It was then amended to “A host of golden Daffodils” in the 1815 edition ('Poems'), which you can see here: www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Poems_by_William_Wordsworth/7oUUAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=

[@HRJohn1944]

@@Tevildo Thank you

[@HRJohn1944]

@@DrOctaviaCox Thank you for the info, and again, thank you for your post. I wonder if any others have been through this process: when, age 15, I first read the opening line of Endymion, I thought "How wonderful" - (similarly the end of "Grecian Urn"). Later (and for some time) I thought of each "Well, it's a bit trite, isn't it?". Later again, I thought it through, and was sure that Keats knew what he was about. The changes in view were some time in coming and usually were responses to outside influences.

[@DrOctaviaCox]

@@HRJohn1944 I find this to be true often - that one reads something, thinks that one understands it and so dismisses it, only for it to open up again to one later, once - as you suggest - one has had different experiences. The same text at different stages in life can read completely differently.

[@zakatista5246]

Thank you!

[@claratakken3671]

The image of beauty as this flowery wreath binding us to the earth despite its pouring to us from Heaven's brink, suggests a paradox to me. It seems to suggest that beauty, this heavenly gift, attaches us to mortal life, strengthens our love for this life, and keeps us from wanting to move into immortality. Does that make sense here?

[@ahitagnid]

I love these analyses - even though I try to think about most poems because I like the process, some I have to do because of exams, haha. However, I hate how such ‘exam focused’ videos totally forget to speak about what the actual poem is about. This video is a blessing. Thank you!

[@tyiogy4e]

Best wishes for board exam 🤭🤭🥰

[@Aditya-vu4ey]

​@@tyiogy4eare you guys from India?

[@anandbodhale4652]

Octavia, Good way of interpretation of this great.. poem..! Keats is one of my favorite poems. Clarity in your explanation makes you a good narrator.. Thank you for your efforts..👍🌹 👌

[@erinmurphy9139]

I have lived with this poem for 26 years. The last couplet was handwritten on the wall of my bedroom bathroom. Your video and analysis was my Sunday morning “treat.” And I learned a lot about something with which I am very familiar. So, firstly, thank you. I share the beginning of this poem with my painting and drawing students but I end the introduction to the poem one stanza later which states that these things of beauty always must be with us or we die. In answer to your question and even before you asked it at the end of your video, I found myself wondering why you place such emphasis on the impossibility to reach beauty or the hard ending of brink. What I have always imagined is a cup which IS overflowing, whichIS endless and it even just falls upon us even without effort- that these things of beauty exist all around us and are essentially important to us for our spiritual survival. You seem to think that we can’t quite get there but Keats goes on to tell us even in the very next line that these essences are not with us for just one short hour, they keep us company for our entire lifetime and gain in strength and value over the years. I haven’t read or listened to the entire poem ever. But my short answer, if I understood your question correctly is no. I don’t perceive a hard edge at the end of the first stanza at all. I see water, manna, an endless liquid nutriment flowing, overflowing, moving. Sure, the sound of drink and brink are hard sounds, but their rhyme which does not carry over sortof carves them into our memory as a reminder of the opposite of what you ask or posit. It isn’t that we can’t quite get there but that it is all around us. Beauty is eternal.

[@johnpowys5755]

I'm about half way through reading Endymion for the 1st time (Keats' longer poems were too subtle for me when I was younger) and hadn't picked up on the "snow-ball effect" you describe - maybe it also relates to that experience of getting more out of a poem with re-readings? - There is also that line from one of his letters about about having happiness "repeated in a finer tone and so repeated." Your channel already has more close readings of literature than ever would be aired on TV, so thanks for the hard work. I'm not suggesting you do a video on him, but Christopher Okigbo is such an over-looked poet - especially now, when colonialism is one topic young people have strong feelings about. I'm not sure his work is even in print (in Britain).

[@DrOctaviaCox]

That's a great quotation, and entirely apt. It's my pleasure, John.

[@s.o.3753]

Omg you cut your hair! Looks so classy, I love the new look. And your videos as always.

[@tanuwhoopies1057]

Hello ma'am. I am a high schooler from India and have interest In literature but it's more of Indian Literature. Although I enjoy reading the works of Shakespeare, R. Frost and some other great writers but John Ketas was new for me and I got to know about Endymion as it was in our Literature curriculum. It was hard at first understanding the essence of this masterpiece but thanks to you I was able to feel what the poet exactly wanted us to feel. Also I got to know about a lot of new things. Thanks for your videos and I really appreciate your work. By the way after reading the book 1 of Endymion I have decided to rewrite some verses on my own like what thing makes me feel the word "beauty" and what I think is "endless pouring from the brink of heaven". It's never bad to rewrite our own thoughts to get the inner beauty of any Literature piece tho. 😅 Thanks once again.

[@okirrama3587]

" A thing of beauty is a joy forever"....my man, John Keats said that

[@thesuperslayer7864]

An example of beauty he describes that comes to my mind is people's affection for old ships. Such as the Titanic. And how it causes some to spend their lives studying and admiring them.

[@raphaellep7390]

"And such too is the grandeur of the dooms We have imagined for the mighty dead;" Death popping suddenly amid shapes of beauty : hinting at the Sublime?

[@AD-hs2bq]

Thank you. I may be the only person who has not read the entire poem until now. If I had, I would have decided that Keats had an issue with depression. He had interesting musings, one could conclude. He cleverly achieved the “gotcha”-whatever one thinks or appreciates, nirvana might be out of reach. Sorry, no winning in this life. Obviously, it was worth his painstaking time and skill to tussle with the concept. Personally, I stop at the first line. 😀😀😀

[@RaysDad]

Keats was young and I doubt he carried absolute confidence in the many opinions he'd formed. Perhaps the first lines of 'Endymion' serve as a hopeful hypothesis to be explored over the course of a lifetime. Aren't long poems typically consistent and unified throughout? If so a young poet might find long forms too confining, too settled and stale. (The ode might be a more appropriate form for that age.)

[@afterlate8866]

'It keeps a sacred space for us' - sacred - connected with God, and 'we form beauty from the earth around us'. Is Keats' beauty earthbound only? How can Keats reconcile a belief in a beauty that increases and is eternal with what seems to be his earthbound view of beauty, which has to be finite - and that includes a finite visual remembering? Keats uses religious vocabulary and yet chooses not to invest that vocabulary with a belief in God. I wonder, had he lived longer, how and if, he might have changed his thinking.

[@ranjanapavamani5158]

I think the brink would be the line between life and death. Death though a shroud but beneath and beyond may show us heaven , reunion with loved ones, away from the slavery of sickness. The thing of beaury becomes a joy forever to be continuing for humanity, the golden daffodills , the cool streams or the flowers under a bower of trees is only a shadow of what is to come in the eternal. The beauty that we will see with our spiritual eye is beyond the brink. The reason for at the brink is death had been prominent in his life with the death of his father resulted in financial difficulties and the loss of his mother , her second marriage was a disaster. His grandmother was wiser to get a lawyer to arrange a Trust but they were cheated of their money by a tea planter. But Keats atitude to life is always hopeful and positive. His brilliance and becoming nature won the hearts of the greats such as PB Shelley who was rather egostic to Keats initially but wanted to care for him in his last days.

[@ranjanapavamani5158]

Its a brilliant breakdown of the poem . You have done so clearly and will remain in our hearts

[@jrpipik]

No, the final couplet does not undermine the premise of the opening lines because it is closed: it is closed simply because it closes this section of the poem. I think you are discounting the word "endless." The things of beauty flow forever from heaven in an endless fountain, reinforcing the opening line -- joy forever. Keats may come to challenge this premise in later poems, but in "Endymion," or this opening section at least, he is convinced.

[@DrOctaviaCox]

A very fair response. Many thanks for watching.

[@reveranttangent1771]

Why name it, Endymion? Is the author or reader supposed to be Lady Selene, contemplating whether or not to approach the sleeping Endymion? Perhaps, the reader is supposed to be considering Her abduction of Him.

[@seanwalsh5717]

Keats' parents died when he was young, which must have impressed upon him the realness of his own death.

[@annstillwell730]

Too bad Keats died so young and couldn't enjoy a life with his love.

[@keshavx]

Yeah,a tragedy, tuberculosis really shook humanity at that time.

[@annstillwell730]

@@keshavx yeah it wiped put the Bonte's too.

[@venividivici1364]

Mighty dead - what does it refer to? Is it an oxymoron here..mighty cant be dead and dead not being mighty???!