‘A Thing of Beauty is a Joy For Ever’ is an extract from ‘Endymion’ by John Keats, one of the greatest English Romantic poets. Its theme is the everlasting joy that beauty gives us. The poet says that a beautiful thing never fades into nothingness; its loveliness keeps increasing. In spite of despair, gloomy days and the lack of noble people, beautiful things such as the sun, the moon, trees, daffodils, streams, musk-roses and the lovely tales of great men remove the sadness from our hearts and bind us to the earth.
The poem is written in rhyming couplets (aabb) in iambic pentameter. It is rich in imagery and uses figures of speech like epigram (the first line), metaphor (‘a bower quiet for us’), personification, antithesis (‘old and young’), alliteration and assonance. The language is lyrical and musical. I like the poem because it teaches us to find joy in nature and beauty even in difficult times.