Wise beyond his years and shaped by dramatic and dark forces, Keats lays out for us a method and system for fully embracing life: Negative capability and suffering force us to cling all the more tightly to this earth, as we seek out and embrace its all-encompassing beauty.
Like we see in the negatively capable Eve of St. Agnes, fleeting moments of joy such as the unity of Madeline and Porphyro are happening all around us - often in the midst of cold sadness and uncertainty. And as in the Ode on Melancholy, anguish itself is put forth as beautiful.
Revisiting the famous last phrase of the Ode on a Grecian Urn, I have now a better appreciation for its meaning. The journey through life takes us, necessarily, through pain and suffering on the road to discovering truth and beauty. Is beauty transcendent, or real, visceral and immediate? It's both; I believe Keats is fine with this interpretation, and I think I finally am too.
| 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all | |
| Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. |
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