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Ode on a Grecian Urn- beauty is truth

The poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn” was written in 1819 by John Keats, an English poet of

the romanticism movement. The poem explores the relationship between truth, beauty, and art as

the poet mulls over the strange aspect human structural figure curved into the urn in a

paradoxical form. The poem begins with the speaker’s view of the Grecian urn of the ancient

Greeks. Throughout the poem, the speaker examines different pictures on the Grecian urn and

expresses his perception of every image shown. The urn is vividly explored as a historian that

can tell a significant story. This paper explores the poet’s claim that “beauty is truth and truth is

beauty.”

There is a wide range of definitions of beauty and perceptions of the term truth. Beauty

can mean the aggregate of qualities of an individual or any other thing that is perceived as giving

pleasure and pleasurably exalts the mind of the senior. Theorists have provided a wide range of

perceptions with regard to the relationship between truth and beauty. The paradoxical proverb

“beauty is truth” can be explained through a wide range of fields including, art, religion, human

experience, and photography (Unnikrishnan, np). Essentially, elements that do not perish, such

as truth in this context, always remain beautiful. One of the major functions of art is to relay the

truth therefore, the artistic truth relates to the emotional apprehension of truth and facts.

Individuals reach beauty through intellectualized imagination and intuitive perception which

realizes the key truth.

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According to Keats, the real beauty lies within the truth; anything that is falsified can

never be beautiful and everything that has pure beauty bears aspects of truth. Every form of art is

either a portrayal of true or false and therefore its beauty depends on the degree of truth and

honesty it bears. Evidently, truth and beauty serve each other in a form of commonwealth

whereby one serves the other and vice versa. An idle truth is more conceivable as compared to an

idle beauty. Arguably, people who look for beauty never find it, however, individuals who seek

the truth find pure beauty. Scripture and paintings also portray the same meaning of truth and

beauty. Among all other forms of art, such as music, their beauty is identifiable through the

manner in which they educate, and express the truth.

Truth is used to purify human consciousness to reach for the things that are beautiful and

real. Beauty can never be understood in isolation from the truth. In a social context, truth is a

beautiful operation that does not beneficent work in asocial and personal spheres (Binder, np).

However, lies are an offensive operation against an individual. Just as the truth, beauty is vital

and dynamic and therefore, is identified as identical. When the truth is depicted in form of art,

such as a poem, painting, lyrics of a song, and symbolic dance, truth is expressed in form of

beauty which generally is educative and entertaining. The truth and the beauty conjoined with a

work of art builds up the audience as they are attracted by both of the two aspects, beauty and

truth.

According to the poem, Art portrays truth of the history of human experience better than

other communication forms. The realization of the truth to various occurrences I regarded as the

perception of higher reality behind appearance. For one to see things in their true beauty, one has

to realize these objects in their truth. Therefore, individuals need to search for elements of truth

in various instances since other forms of beauty fade away after a while but the truth will lay
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retain its beauty. In the traditional context, art has been perceived to be the generation of beauty

and decorations, however, according to science, it is the achievement of truth. According to

Carafoli, beauty and truth are unifying factors for science and art (Carafoli, 72). Due to this

perception, some of the artwork such as paintings have been used as references in the

understanding of the past event due to the essence of truth they bear amidst their beauty.

In a spiritual context, truth and beauty are linked and identified as transcendental to

express divine meanings. Additional to the two, goodness is among the three transcendental. The

universal reality extends beyond our daily experience. The two concepts, truth, and beauty, are

intertwined in the religious sphere. Christ himself is the truth and again he is the beauty and

goodness thereby developing the aspect trinity (Wooddell, np). Therefore, truth is trinitarian and

it also means beauty and goodness. From the understanding of Christ, he can be understood as

good, beautiful, and true. The Bible expresses that the followers of Christ need to seek truth

through beauty. This biblical expression of the relationship between truth and beauty shows that

for one to attain beauty, one has to seek truth, for truth is beautiful.

However, some aspects of truth cannot be considered beautiful but rather “ugly”. In

society today, some people do hide the truth about their past in situations where they made

mistakes earlier. In this context, the beauty of truth is invisible, rather it is regarded as ugly

(Unnikrishnan, np). Consequently, the reveal of such truth can cause great reparations such as a

break in relationships, mistrust, and even imprisonment. Additionally, hiding the truth from

loved ones has been perceived as “protecting them” as the truth can be very damaging. In the

context of art, some form of art expressing criticism or some form of inhumanity in society may

not be perceived as beautiful. Regardless, no matter how lies seem to express beauty, in the long
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run, truth is beautiful as it does not perish; no matter how hard people tend to hide the truth, it

will always resurface.

In conclusion, the poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn” expresses the phrase “truth is beauty”

which is philosophical and paradoxical. Essentially, elements that do not perish, such as truth in

this context, always remain beautiful. One of the major functions of art is to relay the truth

therefore, the artistic truth relates to the emotional apprehension of truth and facts. The phrase

“ugly truth” is used in society to hide truths about various mistakes so as to avoid the negative

outcomes linked to revealing the truth. However, no matter how lies seem to express beauty, in

the long run, truth is beautiful as it does not perish. Individuals reach beauty through

intellectualized imagination and intuitive perception which realizes the key truth. Therefore,

individuals need to search for elements of truth in various instances since other forms of beauty

fade away after a while but the truth will lay retain its beauty.
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Works Cited

Wooddell, Joseph D. The Beauty of the Faith: Using Aesthetics for Christian Apologetics. Wipf

and Stock Publishers, 2010.

Carafoli, Ernesto. "On beauty and truth in art and science." Rendiconti Lincei 24.1 (2013): 67-

88.

Binder, Benjamin. "Art and science, beauty and truth, performance and analysis?" Music Theory

Online 22.2 (2016).

Unnikrishnan, C. "General Theory of Relativity and the Universe between beauty and truth."

(2018).