Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?
John KeatsRead
There was an awful rainbow once in heaven: We know her woof, her texture; she is given In the dull catalogue of common things. Philosophy will clip an angel's wings.
Interpretation
What this quote means
John Keats reflects on how philosophy distills the beauty of life into mundane realities.
In this quote, John Keats expresses the idea that the detailed examination and rationalization of beauty and existence through philosophy can undermine the transcendence and wonder associated with it. He uses the imagery of an 'awful rainbow' to suggest that the extraordinary aspects of life become dulled and cataloged into mere commonality, suggesting that the analytical approach can limit our experience of the sublime.
Themes
PhilosophyBeautyExistenceCommon ThingsTranscendence
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the balance between reason and emotion in understanding art.
More from John Keats
All quotes βAre there not thousands in the world who love their fellows even to the death, who feel the giant agony of the world, and more, like slaves to poor humanity, labor for mortal good?
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Ask yourself my love whether you are not very cruel to have so entrammelled me, so destroyed my freedom. Will you confess this in the Letter you must write immediately, and do all you can to console me in it β make it rich as a draught of poppies to intoxicate me βwrite the softest words and kiss them that I may at least touch my lips where yours have been. For myself I know not how to express my devotion to so fair a form: I want a brighter word than bright, a fairer word than fair.
John KeatsRead
Faded the flower and all its budded charms,Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes,Faded the shape of beauty from my arms,Faded the voice, warmth, whiteness, paradise!Vanishd unseasonably
John KeatsRead
I think we may class the lawyer in the natural history of monsters.
John KeatsRead
...I leaped headlong into the Sea, and thereby have become more acquainted with the Soundings, the quicksands, and the rocks, than if I had stayed upon the green shore, and piped a silly pipe, and took tea and comfortable advice.
John KeatsRead
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