Beauty- how do you define it?

roserougesang · 05-19-2006, 02:55 AM

People consider many different things beautiful. Some people find the great outdoors beautiful. Some people find paintings by a particular artist beautiful. Some people find watching their children grow up beautiful to watch. And some people find the calm solitude of their secret garden to be the most beautiful thing.

How do you define beauty and what do you consider to be the most beautiful thing to you?

Niels · 05-19-2006, 03:11 AM

Interesting... I always find 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder' an answer that fits.

I think beauty is everywhere, as long as you want to see it...

And for the most beautiful thing in the world...hm... I don't think there is one thing that is always everywhere beautiful. There is a time and place for everything to be beautiful at least once...

spookypurple · 05-19-2006, 04:10 AM

For me (copping out as ever), beauty is like shopping: most of the time the ideal finds you, rather than the other way around. If I was to try and set myself a ticklist, it would be constantly being revised/torn up simply because of the infinite (?) permutations possible.

Heck, isn't our world an amazing place?

roserougesang · 05-19-2006, 04:16 AM

I agree with that!
So much to explore *sigh*....
Being 15 I haven't seen too much of the world yet but I'd have to say one of the most beautiful things right near me are the roses Mum is currently growing in the back garden. One kind of rose even shares my name, the 'Honor' rose.

spookypurple · 05-19-2006, 04:26 AM

But so much time in which to explore...

Keep the doors of your mind always this open, honey. Let the beauty flow in and take you with it....

roserougesang · 05-19-2006, 04:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spookypurple

But so much time in which to explore...

Keep the doors of your mind always this open, honey. Let the beauty flow in and take you with it....

I love it when people talk in a kind of poetic prose, that's beautiful.

spookypurple · 05-19-2006, 04:31 AM

Thank you. It's nice not to be laughed at for it....

Probably why I like it here!

Nocturne · 05-19-2006, 04:34 AM

Beauty for me is a combination. At a shot, I'd say it was unity or harmony of form and function... on a more general level, I'd say it was a state of being where every addition is superfluous and you cannot take any part away without lessening the whole. Similar to perfection, but with an aspect of interaction with the environment. A statue may be perfect, but not necessarily beautiful. Or think of a wild animal in its natural habitat - the beauty of a diving otter, a stalking tiger etc. Or a spider in its web.

Is anyone familiar with the phrase "Walk in beauty"? I came across it years ago in a game, and liked it. I always felt it meant acting in a certain (responsible and basically benign) way towards oneself and others ... I just googled and apparently it is a Navajo expression, and seems to mean "live in balance, order and harmony"... sums it up nicely for me. Does anyone have some hard facts here?

... as for the most beautiful thing ... there are so many different kinds of beauty, but one instance I remember is watching a hunting kingfisher dive and resurface, in a shower of drops. He was pure poetry.

roserougesang · 05-19-2006, 04:38 AM

I could say that every non-troll member on here is beautiful, beautiful because of their individual characteristics, constructive comments and an appreciation for a wide number of things, both 'gothic' and 'non-gothic'. This forum has 'Home Sweet Home' hanging on the wall of its little cyber-hut. ^^

spookypurple · 05-19-2006, 04:38 AM

No, but what a gorgeous saying. Thanks for sharing.

spookypurple · 05-19-2006, 04:43 AM

Ooooh! I just found this - it's from Byron...

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 mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

That's just the first verse.

The rest is here (sorry, I know it should be in another thread)..

http://www.bartleby.com/101/600.html

I love it when beautiful phrases turn up in more than one place. Feels like little bricks in a house of wonder.

NachtSorcier · 05-19-2006, 09:52 AM

Beauty is something that makes you happy even when everything else (or even the beautiful thing) seems to be crumbling down around you. It might make me upset that we're destroying the environment, but seeing a cloudless sky on the night of a full moon makes me realize that nature will eventually out.

six_inch_heels · 05-19-2006, 10:14 AM

Beautiful things make me happy, for me beauty is something that captures your mind and makes you think. I don't think beauty is perfection, its something that makes you think about what you're looking at.
I prefer quirky things...that just make you smile.

Virulent Dryad · 05-19-2006, 01:59 PM

I think there's two different kinds of beauty. One is immature in a sense, and not really beauty at all. The other is true beauty.

To explain - A lollipop tastes "good to eat." Even a two-year-old can appreciate that. But it takes a ten year old to appreciate the beauty of a rose -- beauty that is "a delight to the eyes," not to the mouth. And what about things which are "desirable to contemplate"? This is beauty that appeals not to any of our physical senses, but to our mind. The poems of Emily Dickenson; the symphonies of Beethoven; an elegant debating performance -- all these are "desirable to contemplate". They appeal to the mind, yes -- but not because they are true, but because they are beautiful. Indeed, a poem may or may not express a truth, and a good debater can be impressive even if he's lying through his teeth. But that's irrelevant. The mind appreciates the beauty of such things -- and desires them accordingly.

A Simple Poet · 05-19-2006, 04:21 PM

Spooky ... Byron is beautiful, or at least I think his poetry is, so I think it can be allowed here.

I also think the natural wonder of creation when cloaked in twilight on a frost night where all the stars are visible is quite beautiful.

Some would say the female form...

I also think beauty is anything of pure essence, strong enough to be declared boldly beautiful within the confines of a haiku.

spookypurple · 05-19-2006, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A Simple Poet

Spooky ... Byron is beautiful, or at least I think his poetry is, so I think it can be allowed here.

Thank you for that, Poet.

Beauty can be wherever it finds us....

In Byron, in a sunlight twinkle on a tiny wave, in my little nephew's smile, the sound of a harp concerto, in the pebble I carry in my pocket...

It just has to find us.

I know I'm getting sleepy, but... does it define us as much as the other way around?

angel_dark_demon_bright · 05-19-2006, 07:05 PM

Beauty how I define it is... my girlfriend. Everything else comes second.

Twisted Ducky · 05-19-2006, 08:29 PM

Beauty to me is seeing my horse walk twords me in the pasture. Coat dirty, mane going all directions, ears pricked forth...it makes me smile, laugh and cry. My horse, my only friend in life, in the world.

Beauty to me is seeing my two little brothers running in circles, yelling as they shoot each other with fake guns. Or when they run around the neighbors garden with sticks, wacking at the plants and screaming "OFF WITH THERE HEADS!".

Beauty to me is seeing my dad in the morning, pot bellied, hairy, sleepy, and demanding a cup of coffee and a smoke before anything else happens.

Beauty to me is seeing a week old kitten, it's head is to big for it's body. It's eyes are to big for it's head, and it squeaks as it rocks back and forth then falls flat on it's face as it attemps to walk.

Beauty to me is that tiny little white flower, pushing determindly out of the crack on the side of the road. It pushes, and pushes, growing each day. Just to shed it's seed, and die.

Beauty to me is a poem that makes you cry sweet tears, yet still makes you want to read it over and over again.

Beauty to me is looking into your lovers eyes and all they say is I love you. And although theres more of a chance there will be nothing but pain later. That one moment, that one second, means everything.

Beauitful.

But what have I say? I'm just the little stubborn fledgling. I'm to young to know what really beauty is.
But beauty is in the eye of the beholder my horse may just be an unimportant animal. A memory may just be another thing that fades away. A flower may just be another plant in the sidewalk. And a lovers eyes may just mean pain. But to hell with it, there beauitful to me. You may not share my veiw, you may think I'm a total moron and should be shot to save the gene pool. But I'm sticking firmly to what makes me smile, laugh, cry, yell, or makes my heart beat madly against my chest.

Wise Child · 05-20-2006, 04:34 AM

My cat.

Yes, really.

He has a pointy little face, skinny, bandy legs, and a huge stomach (he's roughly the size of a small tiger). On paper it sounds funny, and I've been told twice that he's funny-looking (a tactful way of going "christ, your cat's ugly", I think). But try as I might, I just can't see him as anything other than one of nature's more perfect masterpieces. I think he's absolutely gorgeously cute and brilliant.

Makes it easier to understand how parents are often blind to the blatent unnattractiveness of their own unfortunate offspring, if I can get like this over a cat, I guess...

end.of.eternity · 05-20-2006, 05:17 AM

Beautiful...

When you wake up on a silent Saturday morning, you drink some coffee and watch the flowers blooming and probably kids playing outside... no one disturbs you and you feel timeless. That relaxing moment is beautiful.

When it rains outside you sit inside beside a window and drink tea and listen to rain. The drops flowing on the window. The rain inspires you. You start writing or drawing or reading something. This moment is beautiful. I love downpours.

Hands. Hands and clavicles are beautiful.

A messy room is beautiful

Beautiful are all little things which you usually never notice

Old and shabby things are beautiful

roses are beautiful.

Disfunction · 05-20-2006, 05:47 AM

I define beauty as being undefinable. I mean, if I try to put my finger on a specific verbal concoction, it falls short of what I see in the word. I've thought many things beautiful, but the trait seems to be engineered for me towards art and members of the opposite sex, specifically.

I can define human beauty in terms of one person. No need to define when you know the personification of your own subjective taste.

Draconysius · 05-20-2006, 05:56 AM

Beauty in my eyes is artistry. Something in which you give your every breath to create; something which you certainly aren't required to do, but what you create from pure expression of passion. When music is inside you, you play instruments. When images are inside you, you paint or draw. I don't believe any artwork can be called "ugly", because the sheer concept is beauty in itself.

Genre? · 05-20-2006, 06:01 AM

Beauty to me is an inner and immediate sense of inexplicable harmony

Twisted Ducky · 05-20-2006, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Disfunction

I define beauty as being undefinable. I mean, if I try to put my finger on a specific verbal concoction, it falls short of what I see in the word.

Well said, I like it.