The Romantic poet whose Endymion begins “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever” is John Keats. The poem was first published in 1818 and reworks the Greek myth of Endymion, a shepherd loved by the moon goddess Selene.
Keats expands the myth into a long narrative about beauty, imagination, desire, and spiritual discovery. In the poem, Selene is called Cynthia, another name associated with Artemis. Endymion is written in rhyming heroic couplets, using iambic pentameter, and opens with a meditation on how beautiful things provide lasting joy.
The poem received harsh criticism from some reviewers when it appeared, and Keats’s early career was marked by attacks on his style and ambition. Nevertheless, Endymion became an important part of his poetic legacy. The famous opening is sometimes quoted as “A thing of beauty is a joy forever,” but Keats’s original wording uses “for ever” as two words.