Final answer:
The correct quote from John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," which suggests an interconnection between beauty and truth. Keats's lines have generated debate among critics like T. S. Eliot and Cleanth Brooks, reflecting varied interpretations regarding the artistic and philosophical implications of these lines.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement mentioned in the question, "Beauty is life, life beauty," is false. The correct quote from John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is "Beauty is truth, truth beauty." This line has been widely debated among literary critics, including T. S. Eliot and Cleanth Brooks. While Eliot viewed the line as a flaw in the poem, Brooks defended it, seeing it as central to a paradox about the relationship between beauty and truth in poetry. The line suggests that the understanding of beauty encompasses truth, and this is all that we need to know on Earth.
The idea that a single artistic creation, like the Grecian Urn, can encapsulate eternal truths such as beauty and truth echoes the Platonic view of these concepts as higher, unchanging realities. Keats's urn, therefore, serves as both an artistic and a philosophical symbol, immortalizing the momentary and hinting at an idea of permanence in beauty and truth.