Beauty is Truth and Truth is Beauty? What does Keats wants to say??

The meaning of this in classical sense is " The things which are based on truth are beautiful"
For example:Virtue is loved and felt beautiful.

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This world is temporary,why should we be proud of ourselves?(Missing LI)

Its a very tricky question,I must say.
These are concluding lines of Keats Ode to Gracian Urn.Here is the complete couplet,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know

Although there is great amount of disagreement among critics on the interpretation of above lines.Great critic like T.S Eliot has also shown fair amount of disregard to Keats and relevence of these lines to entire poem.However,there is good amount of agreement on one interpretation,which I will share.
Since these are concluding lines of Gracian Urn,here Keats provides reason that made him write such a poem.In earlier part of poem his concern was permenece of art.So in last line he relates permenence with beauty.Beautiful things are those which will live forever.If those things donot live forever then they are not beautiful.Beauty can never decay,if it decays its not beautiful at all.In short beauty is infinite and that is the truth.This is paradox,because truth is infinite and permenent and according to Keats beauty is also permenent like truth.In short Keats has attacked general concept of beauty which common man sees in human beings.Since Human beings die and there beauty can decay,therefore they are not beautiful.Only those things can be beautiful,which cannot decay or die like art or non living things.Therefore this couplet of Keats gave birth to innumerable controversies among critics in English literature.

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Thou lovest: but ne'er knew love's sad satiety.

According to me in this line John Keats wants to say that beauty lies in real world of men, not in art or in fairyland of fancy. After escaping into world of beauty and permanence he finds himself compelled to return to the real world of impermanence and suffering and to reach the conclusion that true beauty consist not in an escape from this world but in an acceptance of it with all its poignancy.

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Asma Morio

u have mixed two odes of his.. ode to nightingale says the same as u say but these lines are from ode to grecian urn.. secondly, ur answer suggests that meaning of the truth in this verse of keats is this world.. but it doesnt seem so.. truth is permanent and u have said in ur answer, "the real world of impermanence".. moreover, u say that true beauty lies not in art, but Keats talks about the permanence art gives to the beautiful objects.. m confused by ur answer Jugni..

if the meaning of it is as per ur explanation, does it link to the things he talks about in the same ode??

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"So my birth was the first of all my misfortunes". (Jean Jacques Rosseou)

following ur interpretation, even art and non-living things also have to die one day..??????

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"So my birth was the first of all my misfortunes". (Jean Jacques Rosseou)

Have a look over it;

http://www.cssforum.com.pk/css-optio...-iz-truth.html

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Love is my Shield,Truth is my Sword,Brain is my Crown,Smile is my Treasure and I'm a Queen;
Quitters never win and Winners never quit..!!!

I know that lines are taken from Grecian Urn and there is no explicit escape at all but for me his imagination is some sort of escape.
In the very opening stanza Keats gives us a contrast between something unchanging ( the urn) because it is dead and something transient because it is alive. At the beginning he enjoys this permanence and immortal love but soon this permanence and immortal love brings frustration and negation because it lacks life. So in the final stanza he concludes that real beauty lies in truth (reality), not in art (imagination).
I am again saying that according to my humble opinion, meaning of "truth is not this world but acceptance of this world means "reality".

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Asma Morio

again a confusing phrase, "acceptance of this world means reality".

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"So my birth was the first of all my misfortunes". (Jean Jacques Rosseou)

Keats have been strivin to prove the permanence of art n here u r sayin art is not real or untrue or transient..

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"So my birth was the first of all my misfortunes". (Jean Jacques Rosseou)