illustration of a starry night sky with one bright star in the middle of the horizon upon which is superimposed the outline of a woman's face

Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art

by John Keats

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Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art

The phrase "sweet unrest" in "Bright Star" is an oxymoron that captures the speaker's conflicting emotions while lying with his lover. "Unrest" is typically negative, but it is "sweet" because it...

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Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art

Keats employs religious imagery in "Bright Star!" by describing the star's observation of the earth's waters performing a "priestlike task of pure ablution," which suggests ritual cleansing. This...

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Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art

In "Bright Star," Keats uses apostrophe to create emotional intensity by addressing the star directly, which makes his yearning for steadfastness more passionate than mere description. This approach...

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Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art

In Keats's sonnet "Bright Star," the main qualities of the star are that it is reliable and eternal.

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Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art

In the first four lines of "When I Have Fears That May Cease to Be," Keats expresses a fear of dying before fulfilling his creative potential and experiencing life fully. He worries that he may not...

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Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art

In "Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art," John Keats explores themes of eternal love and unchanging beauty. The qualities of the poem include its rich imagery and contemplative tone,...

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Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art

The star's qualities that the speaker in Keats' "Bright Star" finds unfavorable are its isolation and static nature. While the speaker admires the star's immortality, he does not want to be alone or...

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Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art

The repetition of "still" in "Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art" evokes the denotations of immobility and continuity, emphasizing the speaker's desire for eternal presence with his...

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Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art

The poem "Bright Star" signifies John Keats's longing for eternal and steadfast love, akin to the constancy of a star. While he admires the star's unwavering presence, he desires to avoid its...

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Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art

"Bright Star" is a single poem by John Keats. Bright Star is a film by Jane Campion about the life of John Keats. Yet the two works share many themes. Each addresses the rapturous quality of love....

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Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art

The imagery in Keats’ poem, while concrete in its specificity, is not always easily interpreted. Some lines are straightforward; others are more abstract, and the meaning of those lines is open to...

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Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art

The sense of place in "Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art" contrasts the eternal position of the star with the speaker's earthly existence. The star gazes upon the earth's purifying...

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Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art

In "Bright Star," Keats expresses a desire for steadfastness like a star, yet not in isolation. He admires the star's eternal vigilance over nature, but wishes to remain constant while being close to...

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Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art

Keats uses themes, imagery, language, and romanticism to express pessimism in his poetry by exploring the tension between eternal beauty and human transience. In "Ode to a Grecian Urn," he depicts...

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Bright Star! Would I Were as Steadfast as Thou Art

Keats and Yeats both explore themes of mortality and immortality through imagery in "Bright Star" and "Sailing to Byzantium." Keats contrasts the eternal gaze of the star with human mortality,...

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