Commentary on John Keats' Poetry

Much has been written about John Keats. No nuance of his poetry of event of his life has been left untouched by critics and biographers, it seems Keats has been reviewed and critiqued as many times as Shakespeare himself. However, if you actually read much of Keats you will see that his poetry, as with any truly good poetry, is thoroughly self-explanatory. Everything which is meant by the poem is somehow evident in the poem itself. A thing half hinted at in a poem is indeed a thing half hinted at and need not be brought into the full and garish light of editor's introductions and student's essays.

Here follows all the commentary on John Keats' poetry which ever needs to be written or said:

Beauty is truth, truth beauty, -- that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

During the last two centuries countless reams of paper have been filled with commentary and speculation on just exactly what Keats meant by those two lines alone. Is the meaning not obvious upon the very first reading? Beauty is truth. Truth is beauty. Nothing else is known or needs to be known.

Beauty = Truth
and that is all