Analysis of John Keats' poem "Bright Star"
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,
Pillow'd 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 to death.
1. Compare and contrast the first part of the poem with the second part of the poem. The poem is divided by the volta - “turn” - which is, in this poem, the rather emphatic “No.”
2. In the first part of the poem Keats is longing to be eternal, steadfast (unchangeable, immutable - which is sadly ironic because he dies so young.) He wishes to be eternal like the star, but not - like the star - in lonely, isolated beauty (splendor) watching the earth’s changing nature from afar.
3. Keats gazes at the star watching like an eremite, a Christian hermit, the “moving waters in their priestlike tasks of pure ablution round Earth’s human shores” - this is linking religious imagery with romantic ardor, or passion, or intensity. Linking the sacred, the religious with the ardor and passion of romantic love was a common thread found in Elizabethan and Romantic poetry (remember when Romeo and Juliet first met? “I profane with my unworthiest hand /This holy shrine…” and “Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, /Which mannerly devotion shows in this…holy palmers’ kiss.”) The religious ardor captures the ardor, passion, and purity of true love. Ablution is a religious ritual performed by priests as an act of purification before praying or doing any religious act such as communion. The ablution creates a thread of purity linking his romantic love with that which is pure.
4.Analyze the rich imagery drawn by Keats - the moving waters, the teeming human shores, the new soft-fallen mask of snow upon the mountains and the moors - which suggests the teeming changeable nature of the earth. This imagery is suddenly broken by the emphatic “No!” which signals a rejection of the former thoughts of isolation. Perhaps it might also be the “snow upon the mountains” brings his thoughts back to earth and to his mistress.
5.“No” is the break, where the poem turns. The word “still” “implies eternal and motionless - may his love and this transitory moment with his love trapped in time be eternal and never changing.
6. Note the romantic urgency of the second part of the poem which is enhanced by the dashes.
7. Movement and change are introduced with “ripening” which is in contrast to the eternal, immutable (unchangeable) star, and continues with “soft fall and swell” connecting breath with movement and change, an undeniable part of being human.
8. Note the oxymoron - “sweet unrest” - which is not passive but an almost ecstatic, active state of being.
9. “Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath” - repetition guides us towards a state of time and timelessness of the moment Keats is sharing with his love.
10.“And so live ever - or else swoon to death….” This emphasizes eternity but an eternity of love and passion and sensuality for Keats to have with his love. Keats desires this, or else he will “swoon to death”, which has sexual connotations. The French term for orgasm is “le petit morte, or small death. Due to its position as the last heavily accented word in the poem, the word “death” carries added meaning to the sense of timelessness and eternity.
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