Neuroscience helps explain how beauty’s joy outlasts the first encounter. When music triggers “chills,” the brain releases dopamine in anticipation and peak moments, creating durable, rewarding memories (Salimpoor et al., Nature Neuroscience, 2011). Moreover, the emotion of awe—a common response to grand vistas or sacred art—expands attention and well-being, with lasting effects on mood and prosocial orientation (Keltner & Haidt, Cognition and Emotion, 2003). Maslow’s “peak experiences” (1964) describe a similar consolidation: brief, intense states that reorganize meaning. Thus, the “forever” in Keats’s line can be read as neurocognitive: beauty lays down tracks we can revisit, each replay rekindling joy and sometimes enlarging it. [...]
