Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter
This famous line of Keats expresses the great truth that man is essentially a dreamer, lost in visions of things that are not before him but for which he has an insatiable longing. The present is seldom good enough but the future is always sweet. In other words, distance invariably lends enchantment to the view. What we possess is not even half as valuable as what we crave to possess. It is this attitude which is responsible for most of the heartache and frustration man experiences in this world. The same yearning for the unattainable and the consequent unhappiness was echoed by Shelley when he wrote ‘We look before and after and pine for what is not! From another point of view, this is an expression of man’s eternal longing for progress and a better world nearer one’s heart’s desire.
