John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" concludes with which famous statement?

Question

Accepted Answer

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty". The correct answer is "Beauty is truth, truth beauty." The poem contemplates scenes depicted on an ancient urn and reflects on the relationship between art and life, permanence and change. The final lines, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know," remain among the most debated in English poetry.

"I wandered lonely as a cloud" is the opening of Wordsworth's "Daffodils," not Keats. "The child is father of the man" is from Wordsworth's "My Heart Leaps Up." "A thing of beauty is a joy forever" is the opening of Keats's "Endymion," not the "Ode on a Grecian Urn."

Keats is essential for the CLEP exam, particularly his great odes of 1819 ("Ode on a Grecian Urn," "Ode to a Nightingale," "Ode on Melancholy," "To Autumn"). Students should understand his concept of "Negative Capability" (the capacity to remain in uncertainty without grasping for facts), his sensuous imagery, and his tragically short life (he died at 25). His letters, which contain important literary theory, are also worth knowing.

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