Talk:Ode on a Grecian Urn

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Moved to a verifiable version. If the text in the history of the page is able to be fixed to a source, please make a new version. Cygnis insignis (talk) 04:30, 19 March 2010 (UTC) This is from the previous page,

Alternate punctuation

The punctuation of the last two lines of the poem is debatable. Alternate punctuation follows:

Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty,-That is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

Beauty is Truth,-Truth Beauty,-that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

Further Information on the last couplet

The last couplet has been a source of controversy; TS Eliot is said to have called it a 'blemish' on the poem (paraphased). Further, Dennis Dean in 1997 wrote an article about these lines. "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" was taken from the writings of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and he (Keats) had possibly considered the whole couplet as the urn 'speaking' to the human mind. And thus, according to Dennis R. Dean, the final lines can be edited (according to modern day practice as:

"'Beauty is truth; truth, beauty'--that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

Source: 'Some Quotations in Keats's Poetry' by Dennis R. Dean. From the Philological Quarterly. Volume: 76. Issue: 1, 1997.

External links

• Source on punctuation: Three Versions of the Beauty-Truth Couplet
• Source on Further Information on the last couplet: EnglishHistory.net