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- While this poem was written, Keats was deeply in love with Fanny Brawne. The bright star represents his love for her, or at least the ideal, steadfast love to which he aspires.
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“Bright Star” is a sonnet by the British Romantic poet John Keats. Written in 1818 or 1819, the poem is a passionate declaration of undying, constant love. The speaker wants to be “stedfast”—constant and unchanging—like the “bright star” described in the poem’s first eight lines.
- Summary
- Themes
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- Poetic Form and Structure
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- Analysis, Line by Line
- About John Keats
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‘Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art’ by John Keats contains a speaker’s desire to remain in the company of his lover forever. ‘Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art’by John Keats begins with the speaker stating that he wants to be “stedfast” like a star. John Keats envies its sure and stable position from which it can see the e...
‘Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art’ by John Keats encompasses several themes such as eternal love, purity, steadfastness, sensuality, and life vs death. However, the most important theme of the poem is eternal love. The reference to the star along with its quality of being steadfast reflects a desire to be eternally in love with one’s ...
‘Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art’ by John Keats starts with a devotional tone. The poet adores the steadfastness of the bright star. Hence devotedly desires this quality. In the next few lines, the poet’s tone reflects directness as well as a sense of peace. The images revolving around the star, moving water, and the soft-fallen mask...
‘Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art’ is a lyric poem and, particularly, a sonnet. Keats follows the thought-pattern of the Italian sonnet (octave & sestet). An important thing to note is that the division of the poem into octave and sestet is emphasized by a very prominent turn between the sections. Keats has chosen a sonnet as his pref...
In ‘Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art’ by John Keats, the Speaker appears somewhat in awe of the star in its steadfast position. He makes use of personification and a series of similes to describe it, as though it were a sentient and omnipresent being, looking down with benevolence and non-judgment at the world below. The metaphor in “...
Lines 1–2
The first two words of ‘Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art’inform the reader that the speaker is not addressing a person, but a particularly bright star. This star is special because it is “stedfast.” It doesn’t move. He is envious of its patience and its eternal station. One can assume he is referring to the North Star, as it is the only one that does not move in the sky. The second line is somewhat confusing. Rather than elaborating on why he wants to be a star, Keats’ speaker i...
Lines 3–4
In these lines of ‘Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art’, the speaker rejects the qualities and the star’s steadfastness, denying the statement made at the beginning of the stanza. The star is cut off from the beauties of nature on earth and is positioned as a passive observer of life. Notice how the lyrical voice describes the star as “Nature’s patient sleepless Eremite”. As the star is mentioned and described, the setting can be thought of as a night environment. A certain melanch...
Lines 5–6
The speaker of ‘Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art’ continues into the next quatrain to describe what the star is forced to watch throughout its life. He describes the “moving waters” on earth that do their “task[s]” with the dedication of priests. The poet compares the ebb and flow of the tides as a daily ritual of cleansing, hence the simile‘priest-like task’. Just as a priest performs the rite of baptism here the waters do so of their own accord. The sixth line adds more detail...
John Keats was born in 1795 and died in 1821. He was an English Romantic poet and was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets, alongside Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. He died at a very young age, at 25 years old, and his works had been published only four years before his death. Keats never saw the extent of his su...
‘Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art’ by John Keats was written in 1819 and, then, revisited in 1820. Nevertheless, his biographers suggest different dates for this same poem, which contemplate his meeting with Fanny Brawne and, later, his engagement to her. Nevertheless, the poem was written between 1818 and 1819. The final version of ‘...
Like ‘Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art’ by John Keats, the following poems similarly talk about eternal love and try to glorify the love between two souls. 1. Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds by William Shakespeare – Here, in this one of Shakespeare’s best love sonnets, the poet talks about the eternal quality of p...
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‘Bright Star’, or ‘Bright star! Would I were steadfast as thou art’ as it is sometimes known, is probably the most famous sonnet written by the Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821). He wrote it in 1819 originally, although he revised it a year later.
Aug 11, 2020 · "Bright Star" is one of romantic poet John Keats' most popular sonnets. It is written in the form of a typical Shakespearean sonnet, with 14 lines made up of an octet and a sestet with the volta, or turn, occurring at line 9 and ending with a rhyming couplet.
Addressed to a star (perhaps Polaris, around which the heavens appear to wheel), the sonnet expresses the poet's wish to be as constant as the star while he presses against his sleeping love. The use of the star imagery is unusual in that Keats dismisses many of its more apparent qualities, focusing on the star's steadfast and passively ...
Jul 13, 2024 · Themes: “Bright Star” by John Keats. The yearning for permanence amidst transience: The speaker expresses a deep longing to be “stedfast” and “unchangeable” like the bright star, contrasting it with the fleeting nature of human life.
“Bright Star, Would I Were Steadfast as Thou Art” As a Representative of Love: As this poem is about the beautiful star, the speaker directly addresses the star and wishes to remain steadfast like it. He adores its unchangeable quality and desires to attain that quality.
