speaking of beauty . . .
  • teachermom24
    Posts: 327
    Some time back there was a discussion about the meaning of beauty from which I extracted this quote:
    Beauty possesses of itself Truth beyond its present moment.


    The most recent issue of Books and Culture carried this article that reminded me of that discussion:
    http://www.booksandculture.com/articles/2015/marapr/rhythmical-creation-of-beauty.html

    Poe insisted that the experience of beauty points us to a Beauty above, creating a yearning that cannot be satisfied in this earthly life and hinting at an immortal existence.


    Isn't this is what we should find/deserve in church, through music, art and architecture? Shouldn't it all point us toward Heaven, the everlasting Beauty?
    Thanked by 3Kathy CHGiffen M. Jackson Osborn
  • kevinfkevinf
    Posts: 1,191
    I posted that quote, which is a sort of translation of a sentence of the French philosopher Ernest Hello.

    I would highly recommend Hello if you can read French. And he was a profound influence on Charles Tournemire.
    Thanked by 4Kathy CHGiffen teachermom24 M. Jackson Osborn
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    Pope Benedict (when Cardinal Ratzinger) on beauty. Long but worth the effort http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/601/contemplation_of_beauty_cardinal_joseph_ratzinger.html
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen teachermom24 gregp
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    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.'

    - John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn
    Thanked by 3M. Jackson Osborn Salieri CHGiffen
  • Mark HuseyMark Husey
    Posts: 192
    Beauty.
    That source of pleasure to the eyes youth owns, wit snatches, money buys, envy affects to scorn, but lies: one fatal flaw it has. It dies.
    -The Rake's Progress
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen eft94530 Gavin
  • Andrew_Malton
    Posts: 1,187
    Wow, Keats and Auden don't agree on the mortality of beauty.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    Mark:

    With all due respect, I think that quote speaks about the 'skin deep' beauty, not the eternal or permanent beauty that exists in art, music architecture, etc.
  • Mark HuseyMark Husey
    Posts: 192
    image
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    Remember Flip Wilson's classic line,

    "Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes all the way to the bone."
    Thanked by 2musiclover88 Gavin
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    Hmm, this conversation calls for another dose of the incomparable George Herbert.

    Vertue.

    Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright,
    The bridall of the earth and skie:
    The dew shall weep thy fall to night;
    For thou must die.

    Sweet rose, whose hue angrie and brave
    Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye:
    Thy root is ever in its grave
    And thou must die.

    Sweet spring, full of sweet dayes and roses,
    A box where sweets compacted lie;
    My musick shows ye have your closes,
    and all must die.

    Onely a sweet and vertuous soul,
    Like season’d timber, never gives;
    But though the whole world turn to coal,
    Then chiefly lives.
    Thanked by 4CHGiffen bonniebede M. Jackson Osborn francis
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Kathy, isn't this Herbert as well?
    "And here in the dust, in the dust, oh here, the flowers of God's love appear."
    Thanked by 2Kathy CHGiffen
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