Bright Star Would I Were Stedfast as You Art
Text transcribed by Keats into a volume of Shakespeare in late September 1820.
"Brilliant star, would I were stedfast equally thou art" is a dearest sonnet by John Keats.
Background [edit]
It is unclear when Keats first drafted "Bright Star"; his biographers suggest different dates. Andrew Motion suggests it was begun in Oct 1819.[1] Robert Gittings states that Keats began the poem in April 1818 – earlier he met his beloved Fanny Brawne – and he later revised it for her.[2] Colvin believed it to have been in the final calendar week of February 1819, immediately later on their informal engagement.
The final version of the sonnet was copied into a volume of The Poetical Works of William Shakespeare, reverse Shakespeare'due south poem, A Lover's Complaint. The volume had been given to Keats in 1819 by John Hamilton Reynolds. Joseph Severn maintained that the last draft was transcribed into the book in belatedly September 1820 while they were aboard the transport Maria Crowther, travelling to Rome, from where the very sick Keats would never render. The volume also contains one sonnet by his friend Reynolds and i past Severn. Keats probably gave the volume to Joseph Severn in January 1821 before his death in February, anile 25.[3] [4] Severn believed that it was Keats's last poem and that it had been composed especially for him.
The poem came to exist forever associated with the "Bright Star" Fanny Brawne – with whom Keats became infatuated. Gittings says it was given as "a declaration of his love."[5]
It was officially published in 1838 in The Plymouth and Devonport Weekly Periodical, 17 years later Keats'south death.
The text [edit]
Bright star! would I were stedfast every bit one thousand art—
Non in solitary splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature'southward patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike chore
Of pure ablution round world'due south human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
No—nevertheless even so stedfast, even so unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my off-white love'south ripening chest,
To feel for always its soft autumn and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, nevertheless to hear her tender-taken breath,
And then live ever—or else swoon to death.[6]
Addressed to a star (perhaps Polaris, effectually which the heavens appear to wheel), the sonnet expresses the poet'south wish to be as constant as the star while he presses against his sleeping love. The utilise of the star imagery is unusual in that Keats dismisses many of its more apparent qualities, focusing on the star'south steadfast and passively watchful nature. In the beginning recorded typhoon (copied by Charles Brownish and dated to early 1819), the poet loves unto decease; past the last version, death is an alternative to (ephemeral) love.
The poem is punctuated every bit a single sentence and uses the rhyme form of the Shakespearean sonnet (ABABCDCDEFEFGG) with the customary volta, or turn in the train of idea, occurring subsequently the octave.
In popular culture [edit]
In Alexander Theroux's 1981 novel Darconville'due south Cat the poem is discussed by the protagonist when teaching his English class.
The 2009 biopic on Keats's life starring Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish, focused on the terminal three years of his life and his relationship with Fanny Brawne. Information technology was named Vivid Star after this verse form, which is recited multiple times in the motion-picture show.
In the Covert Affairs episode "Speed of Life" (Season iii, Episode iv) the character Simon Fischer admits to Annie Walker that the tattoo on his upper left shoulder blade of Ursa Minor was inspired by John Keats's poem. Although she asks him, Simon doesn't tell her who in his life was his bright star or the reason behind getting the tattoo. This tattoo is the symbol used by Jai Wilcox to mark Simon Fischer's dossier inside the CIA.
In the DC Comics upshot series Heroes in Crisis issue #vi by writer Tom Rex and artist Clay Isle of mann, Gnarrk recites the verse form on a full page showing him lying over his mammoth under a clear beautiful heaven.
References [edit]
- ^ Motion (1997) p472
- ^ Gittings (1969) p 415
- ^ Notes and Queries Article, Oxford Journals, 2006. Notes and Queries article
- ^ "Run across the volume at the Keats Business firm archive". Archived from the original on 2010-12-03. Retrieved 2010-06-08 .
- ^ Gittings (1968), p293-viii
- ^ Keats, John (1905). Sélincourt, Ernest De (ed.). The Poems of John Keats. New York: Dodd, Mead & Visitor. p. 288. OCLC 11128824.
Bibliography [edit]
- Colvin, Sidney. John Keats: His Life and Poetry, His Friends, Critics and Afterward-Fame (London: Macmillan, 1917)
- Lancashire, Ian. 'John Keats: Brilliant Star', Representative Verse Online (Toronto: University, 2003). Retrieved July 27, 2005.
External links [edit]
- An omnibus collection of Keats' poesy at Standard Ebooks
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright_star,_would_I_were_stedfast_as_thou_art
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