BRIGHT STAR, WOULD I WERE STEDFAST

By John Keats    1819

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art---

Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night

And watching, with eternal lids apart,

Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,

The moving waters at their priestlike task

Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,

Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask

Of snow upon the mountains and the moors---

No---yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,

Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast,

To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,

Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,

Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,

And so live ever---or else swoon in death.

Today I’d like to introduce Keats’ famous sonnet, Bright Star.

This poem written at the end of 1819 was always mistakenly regarded as the last work of Keats because he copied this sonnet in an empty page of a collection of Shakespeare on his way to Italy in 1820 when he was severely suffering from tuberculosis. It’s a love poem to Fanny. In December, 1818, Keats moved to Hampstead, where he met Fanny Brawne and fell in love with her. They engaged in 1819.

At the beginning of the sonnet, he wrote, “Bright Star! Would I Were Steadfast as Thou Art.” His imagination is free and natural, full of power, making the reader’s bosom full of his passion. Just like Shakespeare wrote in his 116 sonnet, “It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.”

“Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night, And watching, with eternal lids apart.” These two lines are full of suspense, makes the reader’s mind go on with wind. The star is shining, but the feeling he expressed is very cold and lonely.

“Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite, The moving waters at their priestlike task Of pure ablution round earth's human shores.” This is his holy ideal which leads the reader’s imagination into the deep place.

“Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask Of snow upon the mountains and the moors---.” These lines create a pleasant, pure white world before the reader’s eyes.

Several complicated images of the eight lines heighten a noble, solitary feeling. But the arthour turned suddenly, “No---yet still stedfast, still unchangeable, Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast, To feel for ever its soft fall and swell.” Though he loved nature and nourished the will of rescuing the human, he was willing to abandon both for his lover. His flaming passion poured out at the moment. These words are exceedingly sentimental and memorable, but they reveal a feeling: it’s visible but untouchable.

“Awake for ever in a sweet unrest, Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, And so live ever---or else swoon in death.” The poet hoped that he could retain the time and sweet love. Here the readers see a man’s world, feel the ripening breast, hear the calling of desire, and tender-taken breath. At the end of this poem, Keats expressed his two will: enjoy all of these as much as he likes, and swoon in death while experiencing the passional peak. These two wills summarize the theme of this poem. They looks inconsistent, but both of them reached the everlasting ideal state.

The love described in Bright Star is magnificent, but it was shroud by the shadow of Death, just as the poem says, “or else swoon in death”. We know at that time both Keats’ body and mind were facing Death. So this poem is so pathetical and resonant, like Li Shangyin wrote, “Of even this bright flame of love, shall there be only ashes?”

It’s an excellent love poem which interweaves the themes of love, death and eternal together. These fancy images, including bright star, onrushing ocean, flying snow and the lover’s ripening breast, beautiful language and harmonious tone aroused the reader’s association and sentimental experience.

At the end of the poem, Keats put forward two wills: He wanted to purchase eternal life though his life is so brief; He wanted to go beyond the reality but couldn’t let go the happiness of earthly world; he wanted to give himself up to love but couldn’t get rid of the shadow of death; he loved the life ardently but didn’t know how to grasp it. That is his experience of life.

Keats's biographer Aileen Ward wrote that while composing the letter, Keats witnessed the planet Venus rising outside his window. At that moment, Ward said, "doubt and distraction left him; it was only beauty, Fanny's and the star's, that mattered."

His friend Shelley wrote a poem, Adonais, for him after his death. He wrote:

For such as he can lend,—they borrow not

Glory from those who made the world their prey;

And he is gathered to the kings of thought

Who waged contention with their time's decay,

And of the past are all that cannot pass away.

It was believed that Keats was died of tuberculosis. But his friend Byron said he was died of heartbroken. Byron wrote:

John Keats(1821)

by Lord Byron(1788-1824)

Who killed John Keats?

'I,' says the Quarterly,

So savage and Tartarly;

''Twas one of my feats.'

Who shot the arrow?

'The poet-priest Milman

(So ready to kill man),

Or Southey or Barrow.'

Shakespear’s 116 Sonnet