“Bright Star” is a sonnet by the British Romantic poet John Keats. Written in 1818 or 1819, the poem is a passionate declaration of undying, constant love. The speaker wants to be “stedfast”—constant and unchanging—like the “bright star” described in the poem’s first eight lines. But, unlike the “bright star,” the speaker does not want to be isolated or distant from human life: instead, the speaker wants to spend eternity locked in a passionate embrace with his or her lover. The speaker fantasizes about this unchanging love—but it's not clear whether it can actually be achieved in real life. As the speaker acknowledges in the poem's final line, his or her fantasy is fragile, threatened by the death and change that eventually overwhelm all human beings.
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The Full Text of “Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art”
1Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—
2 Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
3And watching, with eternal lids apart,
4 Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
5The moving waters at their priestlike task
6 Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
7Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
8 Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
9No—yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
10 Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
11To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
12 Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
13Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
14And so live ever—or else swoon to death.
The Full Text of “Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art”
1Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—
2 Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
3And watching, with eternal lids apart,
4 Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
5The moving waters at their priestlike task
6 Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
7Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
8 Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
9No—yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
10 Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
11To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
12 Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
13Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
14And so live ever—or else swoon to death.
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“Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art” Summary
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“Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art” Themes
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Love and Steadiness
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art”
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Lines 1-4
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, -
Lines 5-8
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— -
Lines 9-12
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, -
Lines 13-14
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever—or else swoon to death.
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“Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art” Symbols
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Bright Star
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Snow
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“Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Apostrophe
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Personification
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Simile
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Metaphor
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Extended Metaphor
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Repetition
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Enjambment
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End-Stopped Line
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Caesura
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Alliteration
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Assonance
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Consonance
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“Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Stedfast
- Thou
- Art
- Splendour
- Aloft
- Lids
- Eremite
- Priestlike
- Ablution
- Human shores
- Soft-fallen mask
- Moors
- Pillow'd
- Ripening
- Unrest
- Swoon
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art” Speaker
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“Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art”
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More “Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art” Resources
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External Resources
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Tom Hiddleston Reads "Bright Star" — Listen to the poem in its entirety by British actor Tom Hiddleston.
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The Life of John Keats — A detailed biography of Keats from the Poetry Foundation.
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The Romantics — An introduction to Romanticism—the literary movement to which Keats belonged—from the British Library.
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Keats and Fanny Brawne — An essay on "Bright Star" and the poet's romance with Fanny Brawne—for whom many think the poem was written.
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"Bright Star" In 1820 — A version of the poem handwritten into a volume of Shakespeare in 1820.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by John Keats
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