Bright Star
"Bright Star, would
I were stedfast as thou art—"
The speaker begins the
poem by calling out “Bright Star”. Immediately stating clearly his intended
audience. Taken literally, the poet would be addressing a star. On the other
hand, if taken figuratively, the author would be referring his intended
audience to a star, as though whoever he wanted to reach out to was as
intangible as a star.
Keats then continues with,
"would I were stedfast as thou art". This reveals his first purpose
or reason for admiring the "star". He wishes that he were as
"stedfast" as his targetted audience was, thus, one can infer that
one of the reasons why he loved whoever he loved was due to her firmness and
how steady and decisive she was.
Also, the only star that
remains motionless in the sky, is the North Star, which is often used for
navigation. This thus tells us how the poet looks up to his beloved and depend
on his love to lead him.
"Not in lone
splendour hung aloft the night"
Stars never stick
together, they appear in the night sky alone. Even though stars may at times
appear in small groups, yet they're always separated, on their own.
The poet here, could be
showing his mild disapproval of how his beloved is - lonely, and solitary. He
accepts that as a fact and appears to be aiming at changing that characteristic
of his beloved, perhaps by getting together with her, and being by her side.
"And watching, with
eternal lids apart,"
The poet describes a
star with the use of personification. By saying that the star watches
"with eternal lids apart", Keats is saying that not only does the
star watches, but it does so eternally.
He could be implying
here, that his dearest is one whom observes well, perhaps out of wariness, and
she never stops doing so. This could be because she is one whom does not trust
easily, and always has her guard up, thus, she observes eternally, carefully
analysing everyone's moves and actions.
"Like nature's patient,
sleepless Eremite,"
Well phrased, this line
here makes use of similes. The poet compares the way the star watches to how
"nature's patient, sleepless Eremite" might watch something.
An "eremite"
is an old-fashioned way of referring to a "hermit". The reason why
the poet used the old-fashioned word "eremite” instead of
"hermit", was probably due to the fact that he had written the poem
in an era where people commonly used the word "eremite".
The description of the
eremite is in the beginning of the line, where one can tell an eremite was
patient and sleepless. The poet also capitalises the first letter of the word
"eremite", this thus emphasises how he is referring his most
treasured one to a hermit, and the respect he shows to anything that has to do
with her. This description of a hermit, and the reference of the female to a
hermit, tells us that whoever he loves was probably one who was patient, and
sleepless. The reason why she could be sleepless, may be because of her
wariness and distrust towards humans, as stated before in the previous
paragraph.
"The moving waters at their priestlike
task
Of pure ablution round
earth's human shores,"
In here Keats states
that the task of the stars were ablution around Earth's human shores. This
means that Keats believe stars cleanse what humans pollute. This could show how
he believes his beloved is pure, and is kind, thus able to clean every part of
human life he finds disgusting and dirty.
Or gazing on the new
soft-fallen masque
Of snow upon the
mountains and the moors—
The mask that the speaker gaze on is a mask of snow. The
mask that the star was watching is not a real mask, but instead a metaphorical mask.
Literally speaking, Mask is used as a cover for something so by saying mask of
snow ,it also shows that the snow is indeed covering something . The basic idea
of a "moor," then, is that it is a barren, lonely, uninhabited place.
And so are mountains, usually. The poet is perhaps talking about one blank,
cold, barren substance, "snow," landing on, and creating a mask over,
two blank, cold, barren, lonely landscapes: "the mountains and the
moors."
“The mournful image of the waves washing the earth” (lines
5-6) and “the loneliness of the star “(lines 2-4)might be the reason why the
poet does not want to be a star however
the irony is that in the first line he wants to be a star.
No—yet still stedfast,
still unchangeable
There was a sudden change of mind set and the “No” at the
beginning is kind of like an exclamation mark.
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
I can infer that he'd love to be as "stedfast" as
the star, but he isn't jazzed about sitting up in the high heavens taking in
all those dreary sights. Instead, he'd like to be just as "stedfast"
in resting his head on his girlfriend's chest.
The use of the words “ripening” and “fair love” shows that
his girlfriend might still be fairly young and in the process of “filling out”
The word "ripening" also gives a feeling of
sweetness and warmth that contrasts with the cold images of the waters and the
snow falling on barren landscapes.
To feel for ever its
soft swell and fall,
By bringing in the idea of "for ever," Keats
continues to emphasize the main aspect of the star's existence the speaker
would like to have: its permanence.
Awake for ever in a
sweet unrest,
This might perhaps meant that even though he would be
resting his face on his girlfriend's breast like a pillow, he doesn't want to
fall asleep there and miss out on all the action. Instead, he would rather
remain awake forever.
This is another parallel between the speaker and the star,
which keeps its eyes open forever. The poet is creating a contrast as between
the star and himself; it's a lot better to be forever awake with your head
resting on your girlfriend than to be high up in the barren cosmos with nothing
but equally barren sights to feast your eyes on.
This line is also interesting because it takes an idea that
might normally be a bad thing ("unrest"), and makes it a good thing,
by sticking the adjective "sweet" in front of it.
Still, still to hear
her tender-taken breath,
The poet is repeating his point from line 11, "feel for
ever its soft swell and fall. This kind of make sense as he already said that
he would like to do the same thing for ever and ever and for the rest of
eternity.
However, in another way, the poet might not be repeating
himself, instead he is introducing new information. That's because, the first
time that he talked about his girlfriend's breathing, it was in the context of
the sense of touch: he would "feel" her chest rising and falling.
Now, it is in the context of the sense of hearing: he wants to "hear"
her breathing, too.
The poet also used “still” in line 9 and line 13 ,this could
show a sense of “motionless”.
And so live ever—or
else swoon to death—
This might also show his insistence to live forever in the
way he has just described, or he would
rather "swoon to death." It is also highly likely that ending with
the word "death" is Keats's way of giving us the feeling that his
speaker is also doomed as everyone would die eventually. This draws the
ultimate contrast between the frailty of human mortals and the unchanging
immortality of the Bright Star from line 1.
The poem also end with a dash , this shows that the poet
probably meant that life does not limit to one or two choices and there
might more choices that the poet had not yet figure out.
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