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There is beauty in all the things we see around us. It brings us happiness when we see something beautiful. Its attractive beauty always increases, and it can never end. Even as it ages the beauty increases, and it can never stop - it is permanent and keeps growing. Beauty is eternal; it does not away.
There is an ever-increasing beauty in everything around us!
The poet lists several beautiful objects around him. A bower refers to a pleasant shade under the trees. The beauty around us provides a calm, lovely shade for us to relax, have a peaceful sleep filled with happy dreams; thereby leading us to have good health and soft rhythmic breathing. Beauty can be a healing therapy, which gives us a healthy body, mind and soul.
Relax in a bower, enjoy the beauty!
Beauty enables us to cover ourselves in a band made of flowers, (a wreathe) to help us form a bond with the earth, every day. Our relationship with this earth can be wrapped like flowers in a wreathe if we enjoy the beauty around us.
A flower wreath!
Our earth is filled with evils/obstructions like:
- sorrow, hopelessness,
- cruelty,
- absence of good-natured righteous people,
- sad and dark days,
- harmful and depressed system of life.
Note that the word "spite" can be understood in two different ways:
- Spite - instead of "in spite" (poetically)
- Spite - intention to deliberately hurt someone
Our earth is filled with despondence, inhuman nature, gloomy days and unhealthy ways of life!
But the poet says, we have to keep searching for beauty, which can make our life brighter despite all the evils around us. Some form of beauty can remove the (pall)cloth covering from all these problems. A pall can also refer to a dark cloud of smoke and dust. The poet compares our problems to this dark cloud, which can be removed by the beauty around us.
Problems engulf us like a dark cloud of some and dust!
The poet says, the beauty around us comes in some form, to lift us from our darkness. Only beauty can save our spirit and soul, from the evils of life. Despite all the miseries of our life, beauty comes in the form of everyday things like:
- Sun
- Moon
- Old trees or new plants - which extends its shade to us, as a blessing
- Simple animals like sheep - the reference can also mean fellow men on this Earth. It is believed that Jesus was the shepherd who led men (also known as sheep)
- Daffodils - beautiful flowers which grow in spring - they symbolize new beginnings
- Clear streams of water that gives coolness even during hot summers
- Thick, dense bushes in the middle of forests
- Abundant growth of musk-rose blooms
The sun, moon, trees, fellow men, daffodils, clear rills, thick bushes, musk-roses - the various shapes of beauty!
The poet appreciates the beauty in all the above. He says nature has provided us with such beautiful to lift our spirits and souls from the depressing and gloomy events around us. Not only the above, but he also finds similar beauty in the inspirational stories of the great men/kings who have done many noble deeds and left behind their legacies. He finds such stories beautiful and splendid as nature.
There is beauty in inspirational tales of the mighty noblemen!
Finally, the poet says nature provides us with abundant beauty that it looks like a never-ending fountain of a drink, which falls on us and lets us live forever. It is like a shower of blessings. The beauty of nature is like a nectar that flows straight from the edge of heaven. If we take inspiration from the beauty around us, we can live forever happily and healthily.
An endless fountain of immortal drink, from the heaven!
Reference:
State Council of Educational Research and Training (2019). Term-2 English Standard-8. A thing of beauty - John Keats (pp. 127-130). Published by the Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation.
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