HSC English First Paper | Unit: 14, Lesson: 1 | Art and Music | What is Beauty?

1. Warm up activity:

□ In a group, discuss what you mean by beauty; and its place in art.

□ Discuss any work of art you have seen (a painting, a sculpture, a photograph, an embroidered quilt and why you consider it beautiful).

Beauty is easy to appreciate but difficult to define. As we look around, we discover beauty in pleasurable objects and sights - in nature, in the laughter of children, in the kindness of strangers. But asked to define, we run into difficulties. Does beauty have an independent objective identity? Is it universal, or is it dependent on our sense perceptions? Does it lie in the eye of the beholder? -we ask ourselves. A further difficulty arises when beauty manifests itself not only by its presence, but by its absence as well, as when we are repulsed by ugliness and desire beauty. But then ugliness has as much a place in our lives as beauty, or may be more-as when there is widespread hunger and injustice in a society. Philosophers have told us that beauty is an important part of life, but isn't ugliness a part of life too? And if art has beauty as an important ingredient, can it confine itself only to a projection of beauty? Can art ignore what is not beautiful?

Poets and artists have provided an answer by incorporating both into their work. In doing so, they have often tied beauty to truth and justice, so that what is not beautiful assumes a tolerable proportion as something that represents some truth about life. John Keats, the romantic poet, wrote in his celebrated 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,' by which he means that truth, even if it's not pleasant, becomes beautiful at a higher level. Similarly, what is beautiful forever remains true. Another meaning, in the context of the Grecian Urn—an art object—is that truth is a condition of art.

Poetry in every language celebrates beauty and truth. So does art. Here are two poems from two different times that present some enduring ideas about beauty and truth. The poems are by Lord Byron (1788-1824), an English poet of the Romantic tradition, and Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), an American poet who wrote about the human scene, love and death.

A. 'She Walks in Beauty' by Lord Byron

1

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that's best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes:

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

2

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o'er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express,

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

3

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

B. I Died For Beauty' by Emily Dickinson

I died for beauty, but was scarce

Adjusted in the tomb,

When one who died for truth was lain

In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?

'For beauty,' I replied. 

'And I for truth - the two are one;

We brethren are,' he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a-night,

We talked between the rooms,

Until the moss had reached our lips,

And covered up our names.

2. Byron's poem is about a women's exceptional beauty which reflects her inner goodness and grace. Why does he associate her with night and starry skies?

3. What imagery does Byron associate with the woman?

4. Was Byron writing about his love for the young woman or simply celebrating her beauty?

5. What impression of beauty do you get from your reading of the poem 'She Walks in Beauty ?

6. Dickinson's poem expresses an optimism for the afterlife. Show how it is done in the last two stanzas of the poem.

7. 'Despite the uneasy feeling created by death and the speaker's position inside a tomb, 'I Died For Beauty' is ultimately comforting.' Discuss.

8. 'I Died For Beauty' has a regular abab rhyme scheme. Can you remember any poem that you have read with a similar rhyme scheme? Write four lines of the poems in your notebook.

9. In 'I Died For Beauty,' the man who died for Truth says that Truth and Beauty are the same. Do you agree? Why?

10. Column B lists the meanings of words in column A but not in a proper order. Match the words with the meanings provided:

Column A	Column B
aspect	plural form of brother
gaudy	next to one another
impair	tiny flowerless plants that grow in tufts or mats in damp places
scarce	facial expression; countenance
adjoining	to make or cause to become worse; damage or weaken
brethren	cheap and showy, flashy
moss	barely, hardly

If you want to read the next lesson of this unit please click the link below:
Lesson 2: Folk Music