Bright+Star

=Looking at John Keats' "Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art"=



In 1819, at just 24 years of age yet only two years prior to his death, Keats wrote "Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art". The poem is unique in that it is a blend of the both the Shakespearean sonnet and the Petrarchan sonnet. With three four-line stanzas and a concluding couplet, it appears to be a standard Shakespearean sonnet. However, thematically it is split up into lines of eight and then six, which is of course, traditional of the Petrarchan sonnet.

Below we see the sonnet's Petrarchan (left) and Shakespearean (right) aspects.

1 Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art— A 2 Not in lone splendor hung aloft the night, B 3 And watching, with eternal lids apart, A 4 Like Nature’s patient, sleepless eremite, B 5 The moving waters at their priestlike task C 6 Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores, D 7 Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask C 8 Of snow upon the mountains and the moors; D

1 No—yet still steadfast, still unchangeable, E 2 Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast, F 3 To feel for ever its soft swell and fall, E 4 Awake for ever in a sweet unrest, F 5 Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, G 6 And so live ever—or else swoon to death. G

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Although he would like to be as steadfast as the bright star, in the first eight lines, Keats is talking about what he doesn’t mean by that—he doesn’t want to be eternally watchful nor does he want to see the constant cycle of death and life purifying the earth. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">In the last six lines he says what he does mean by his opening line. What he would like is to be forever suspended in the moment that he is in with his head rested upon his lover's breast.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Return to The Romantics and the Sonnet