FINAL TERM ASSIGNMENT

Rohib Adrianto Sangia,

NIM. 137835102
"When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know"
Aspects of life are frozen on the urn in different images which chronicle a ritual of another culture in
another time. It represents, for that people, an aspect of life that had meaning. It therefore contains a
truth for the Greek people who are depicted, and for those who look at the urn. The beauty of the urn
draws up in, as one examines its detailed representations of nature and life gone by; it connects the
observer to the past. All peoples are linked together through the urn's timeless beauty. It expresses an
absolute truth, giving meaning to human existence. Therefore, the urn will always be available, long
after we are gone, to represent life, beauty and truth in its timeless images. Art, its beauty, exists in its
preservation of the past in a snapshot carefully preserved for all time.
Furthermore, the only clue to understand the essential of beauty and truth, According to Brann (in
Keesey, 2003), we can see the letter that he wrote to Benjamin Bailey two years before.
Do not, my dear fellow. O, I wish I was as certain of the end of all your troubles as that of your
momentary start about the authenticity of the Imagination. I am certain of nothing but of the
holiness of the Hearts affections and the truth of Imagination. What the imagination seizes as
Beauty must be truthwhether it existed before or notfor I have the same Idea of all our
Passions as of Love; they are all in their sublime, creative of essential Beauty. In a Word, you
may know my favorite Speculation by my first Book and the little song I sent in my last, which is
a representation from the fancy of the probable mode of operating in these Matters. The
Imagination may be compared to Adams dreamhe awoke and found it truth. I am the more
zealous in this affair, because I have never yet been able to perceive how anything can be
known for truth by consequitive reasoningand yet it must be. Can it be that even the greatest
Philosopher ever arrived at his goal without putting aside numerous objections? However it may
be, O for a Life of Sensations rather than of Thoughts! It is a Vision in the form of Youth, a
Shadow of reality to come, and this consideration has further convinced me for it has come as
auxiliary to another favorite Speculation of mine, that we shall enjoy ourselves hereafter by
having what we called happiness on Earth repeated in a finer tone and so repeated. And yet
such a fate can only befall those who delight in sensation rather than hunger as you do after
Truth. Adams dream will do here and seems to be a conviction that Imagination and its
empyreal reflection is the same as human Life and its spiritual repetition.(Keats and Scott,
2002:54)
From a piece of the letter above, I can give some speculation behind Keats the last line of Ode on a
Grecian urn. The speculations are the Adams dream and another one is avowal for a life of sensation.

For the first speculation, according to Toms `(2003:1) explain, in John Miltons Paradise Lost, there is
four major of dream when Adam and eve actually sleep. On the first day of his life, Adam dreams twice:
once of Eden and once of Eve. The next dream, chronologically, is Eves dream of eating from the
forbidden tree. Eves dream of the Promisd Seed is the final dream of the epic. These dreams all occur
during sleep, and all fit the traditional definition of dream: A train of thoughts, images, or fancies
passing through the mind during sleep; a vision during sleep. Thus, Toms continue his explanation that
Adams dream described in Book VIII (Milton and Lewalski, 2007), the first dream chronologically in
Eden, is the preeminent dream in Paradise Lost. Not only does the dream comfort Adam, but it also
transforms his life. After the dream, Adam is spiritually and physically in Paradise. Adams first dream
follows the patterns of many dreams in epics. It is clearly what Manfred Weidhorn calls objective:
While the subjective dream arises from the dreamers own inner faculties, the objective is caused by
some agency from withoutwhether the gods... or ghosts of the dead.
Another speculation is Keats statement to Bailey that for life is of sensation rather than thoughts. I
believe that Keats was trying to explain the human basic behavior to pursuit the sensation in his/her life.
Sensation and thoughts are two things that contradictory, according to Keats. As the conclusion, I may
state that Beauty and truth are the equal things that human being pursuit to get the happiness in the
world. Vice versa if a man cannot pursuit feel of the sensation in his life, that the sign that misery will be
facing him.
If we take a look for the last line, the second speculation is fit as in the relation. It means that what we
all need to know, not for the Adams dream, but more proper with Keats statement about life and
sensation. Furthermore, sensation makes we give the judgment about a thing whether it is beauty or
not, truth or not. Relating to Edna action in giving herself to sea, in my opinion, sea is the symbol of
liberation to Edna. From problems that she faced, she is trying to fulfill her deepest obsession to be
awake as baby, reset his life, to get everything well. Naked at the seashore is the symbol of the pureness
of a baby when come to the world. Keep swimming to the sea until she feel tired, really tired, not only
physically tired, but also mentally tired with all the problems he left behind. Swimming is the symbol of
pursuits something, and in here her pursuits for his freedom which she believes the sensation of
freedom can be given by the sea. Another speculation is, maybe Edna wants to fulfill her dreams to be
awake not in this world, but another world that Adams dream before, and He awake in that place called
Eden when the truth and beauty cannot be separated each other.

References
Keats, John, and Scott, Grant F. 2002. Selected letters of John Keats (Rev. ed.). Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press.
Keesey, Donald. 2003. Contexts for criticism (4th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Milton, John, and Lewalski, Barbara Kiefer. 2007. Paradise lost. Malden: Blackwell Pub.
Toms, Marcia Lynn. (2003). "And dreams advise" the dreams in Paradise Lost and their precursors