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

Thank you!

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.

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

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.

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.”

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!

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

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..👍🌹 👌

Now, I started loving poetry

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. 😀😀😀

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

Thanks a lot for this beautiful explanation of the poem!

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.

Very informative and beautifully explained. Kudos ‼️

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.

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

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.

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?

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

"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?

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

'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.

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.)

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.

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

"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.

now I understand the poem better, thank you

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.

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).

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?

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

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)

One of my favorite poems by keats.

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'

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

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

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