Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

 

Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art—

(c. 1819)

 

John Keats
(October 31, 1795 – February 23, 1821)



Bright star! would I were steadfast 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 steadfast, 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
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

 


 

Notes

First published posthumously in Plymouth and Devonport Weekly Journal 1838.


1  steadfast: 

3  lids: eyelids

 

4  Eremite: a Christian hermit or recluse (Oxford Dictionaries)


6  ablution:


9  still:


14  swoon: 


14  death:


 








 

 

Study Questions

  •  

            

 

 


 

 

 

 


Sample Student Responses to John Keats's "Bright star" 


   

Response 1:

Study Question:

 

 

 

 

 

Student Name

2202234 Introduction to the Study of English Literature

Acharn Puckpan Tipayamontri

June 12, 2010

Reading Response 1

  

Title

 

Text.

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

Reference


Keats, John. "Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art—." The Poetical Works of John Keats. Ed. William T. Arnold. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co., 1884. 345. Print.





 

 

Links

 


Media
  • The Romantic Spirit (1982 TV series)

  • The Last Journey of John Keats, BBC (1995)

  • Bright Star trailer, dir. Jane Campion (2009; 2:27 min.)





John Keats

 

 


 

Home  |  Introduction to the Study of English Fiction  |  Literary Terms  |  English Help  

Last updated June 23, 2013