“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever (from Endymion)” Introduction

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“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever (from Endymion)” Summary

“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever (from Endymion)” Themes

• 

  The Redemptive Power of Beauty

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• 

  Nature, Creativity, and Poetry

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever (from Endymion)”

• Before Line 1

  A Poetic Romance

  (excerpt)

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 1-5

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 6-13

  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-darkened ways
  Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
  Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
  From our dark spirits.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-19

  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:

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 20-24

  And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
  We have imagined for the mighty dead;
  All lovely tales that we have heard or read:
  An endless fountain of immortal drink,
  Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-33

  Nor do we merely feel these essences
  For one short hour; no, even as the trees
  That whisper round a temple become soon
  Dear as the temple's self, so does the moon,
  The passion poesy, glories infinite,
  Haunt us till they become a cheering light
  Unto our souls, and bound to us so fast,
  That, whether there be shine, or gloom o'ercast,
  They always must be with us, or we die.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 34-39

  Therefore, 'tis with full happiness that I
  Will trace the story of Endymion.
  The very music of the name has gone
  Into my being, and each pleasant scene
  Is growing fresh before me as the green
  Of our own vallies:

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 39-45

  so I will begin
  Now while I cannot hear the city's din;
  Now while the early budders are just new,
  And run in mazes of the youngest hue
  About old forests; while the willow trails
  Its delicate amber; and the dairy pails
  Bring home increase of milk.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 45-57

  And, as the year
  Grows lush in juicy stalks, I'll smoothly steer
  My little boat, for many quiet hours,
  With streams that deepen freshly into bowers.
  Many and many a verse I hope to write,
  Before the daisies, vermeil rimm'd and white,
  Hide in deep herbage; and ere yet the bees
  Hum about globes of clover and sweet peas,
  I must be near the middle of my story.
  O may no wintry season, bare and hoary,
  See it half finished: but let Autumn bold,
  With universal tinge of sober gold,
  Be all about me when I make an end.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 58-62

  And now at once, adventuresome, I send
  My herald thought into a wilderness:
  There let its trumpet blow, and quickly dress
  My uncertain path with green, that I may speed
  Easily onward, thorough flowers and weed.

  

  

  

  

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“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever (from Endymion)” Symbols

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  Light and Darkness

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“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever (from Endymion)” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever (from Endymion)” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Bower
• Morrow
• Spite of
• Despondence
• Dearth
• O'er-darkened
• Pall
• Boon
• Rills
• Covert
• Brake
• Dooms
• O'ercast
• Vermeil rimm'd
• Ere
• Hoary
• Herald
• Thorough

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever (from Endymion)”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever (from Endymion)” Speaker

“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever (from Endymion)” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever (from Endymion)”

More “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever (from Endymion)” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a reading of the poem's first 33 lines.

  • A Brief Biography — Learn more about Keats's life and work via the British Library.

  • The First Edition — See images of the first edition of Endymion—a book that would make Keats the target of much vicious criticism in the conservative press.

  • Keats's Preface to Endymion — Read Keats's rather self-conscious preface to Endymion, in which he tries to get ahead of the critics by admitting it's an immature work before they can tell him so. (This didn't work.)

  • The Complete Poem — Read the full text of Endymion.

  • The Keats-Shelley House — Learn more about Keats at the website of the Keats-Shelley House, a museum housed in Keats's final lodgings in Rome.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by John Keats

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  • On the Grasshopper and Cricket

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  • This living hand, now warm and capable

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  • To Sleep

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