One of the most beloved poems by the English poet John Keats (1795-1821), ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ (1819) is perhaps best known for its closing two lines:
‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty, – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’
Referring to the work as ‘arguably the best poem from arguably the best Romantic poet’, in this video essay Evan Puschak (aka the Nerdwriter) offers a stanza-by-stanza breakdown of Keats’s words, which revolve around a speaker contemplating the meaning of the images painted onto an ancient Grecian urn. Highlighting how the poem contrasts the ephemeral realities of life with the seemingly eternal beauty of art, Puschak makes an apropos case for the work’s own enduring power.
Video by The Nerdwriter
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Anthropology
Does Mogi’s future lie with her horses on the Mongolian steppe, or in the city?
16 minutes
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Art
The sprawling mural that depicts an unflinching people’s history of Los Angeles
7 minutes
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Personality
A ‘dumpster archeologist’ reconstructs strangers’ stories via what they’ve discarded
14 minutes
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Art
In his poem ‘London’, William Blake crafted a bleak vision of the city he loved
9 minutes
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Art
A prisoner in Guantánamo finds some escape in building intricate model ships
6 minutes
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Meaning and the good life
A Japanese religious community makes an unlikely home in the mountains of Colorado
9 minutes
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Sex and sexuality
From secret crushes to self-acceptance – a joyful chronicle of ‘old lesbian’ stories
29 minutes
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Making
Forging a cello from pieces of wood demands its own form of virtuosity
27 minutes
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Physics
The rhythms of a star system inspire a pianist’s transfixing performance
5 minutes