"Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art" is a love

sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculo ...

Background

It is unclear when Keats first drafted "Bright Star"; his biographers suggest different dates.

Andrew Motion Sir Andrew Motion (born 26 October 1952) is an English poet, novelist, and biographer, who was Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009. During the period of his laureateship, Motion founded the Poetry Archive, an online resource of poems and audio reco ...

suggests it was begun in October 1819.

Robert Gittings Robert William Victor Gittings CBE (1 February 1911 – 18 February 1992), was an English writer, biographer, BBC Radio producer, playwright and poet. In 1978, he was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for ''The Older Hardy''. Early life ...

states that Keats began the poem in April 1818 – before he met his beloved

Fanny Brawne Frances "Fanny" Brawne Lindon (9 August 1800 – 4 December 1865) is best known as the fiancée and muse to English Romantic poet John Keats. As Fanny Brawne, she met Keats, who was her neighbour in Hampstead, at the beginning of ...

– and he later revised it for her. Colvin believed it to have been in the last week of February 1819, immediately after their informal engagement. The final version of the sonnet was copied into a volume of ''The Poetical Works of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

'', opposite Shakespeare's poem, ''

A Lover's Complaint "A Lover's Complaint" is a narrative poem written by William Shakespeare, and published as part of the 1609 quarto of '' Shakespeare's Sonnets''. It was published by Thomas Thorpe. "A Lover’s Complaint" is an example of the female-voiced com ...

''. The book had been given to Keats in 1819 by John Hamilton Reynolds.

Joseph Severn Joseph Severn (7 December 1793 – 3 August 1879) was an English portrait and subject painter and a personal friend of the famous English poet John Keats. He exhibited portraits, Italian genre, literary and biblical subjects, and a selec ...

maintained that the last draft was transcribed into the book in late September 1820 while they were aboard the ship ''Maria Crowther'', travelling to Rome, from where the very sick Keats would never return. The book also contains one sonnet by his friend Reynolds and one by Severn. Keats probably gave the book to Joseph Severn in January 1821 before his death in February, aged 25. Severn believed that it was Keats's last poem and that it had been composed especially for him. The poem came to be forever associated with the "Bright Star" Fanny Brawne – with whom Keats became infatuated. Gittings says it was given as "a declaration of his love." Gittings (1968), p293-8 It was officially published in 1838 in ''The Plymouth and Devonport Weekly Journal'', 17 years after Keats's death.

The text

Addressed to a star (perhaps

Polaris Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude that ...

, around which the heavens appear to wheel), the sonnet expresses the poet's wish to be as constant as the star while he presses against his sleeping love. The use of the star imagery is unusual in that Keats dismisses many of its more apparent qualities, focusing on the star's steadfast and passively watchful nature. In the first recorded draft (copied by Charles Brown and dated to early 1819), the poet loves unto death; by the final version, death is an alternative to (ephemeral) love. The poem is punctuated as a single sentence and uses the rhyme form of the

Shakespearean sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...

(ABABCDCDEFEFGG) with the customary

volta Volta may refer to: Persons * Alessandro Volta (1745–1827), Italian physicist and inventor of the electric battery, count and eponym of the volt * Giovanni Volta (1928–2012), Italian Roman Catholic bishop * Giovanni Serafino Volta (1764–184 ...

, or turn in the train of thought, occurring after the octave.

In popular culture

Alexander Theroux Alexander Louis Theroux (born 1939) is an American novelist and poet. He is known for his novel ''Darconville's Cat'' (1981), which was selected by Anthony Burgess for his book-length essay '' Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 � ...

's 1981 novel ''

Darconville's Cat ''Darconville's Cat'' is the second novel by Alexander Theroux, first published in 1981. The main story is a love affair between Alaric Darconville, an English professor at a Virginia women's college, and Isabel, one of his students, but includes ...

'' 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 final three years of his life and his relationship with Fanny Brawne. It was named ''Bright Star'' after this poem, which is recited multiple times in the film. In the '' Covert Affairs'' episode "Speed of Life" (Season 3, Episode 4) the character Simon Fischer admits to Annie Walker that the tattoo on his upper left shoulder blade of

Ursa Minor Ursa Minor (Latin: 'Lesser Bear', contrasting with Ursa Major), also known as the Little Bear, is a constellation located in the far northern sky. As with the Great Bear, the tail of the Little Bear may also be seen as the handle of a ladle, h ...

was inspired by

'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 within the CIA. In the

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

event series ''

Heroes in Crisis ''Heroes in Crisis'' is an American comic book limited series published by DC Comics. It is written by Tom King and illustrated by Clay Mann. ''Heroes in Crisis'' follows the "Crisis" naming convention of prior DC crossovers, but is billed as ...

'' issue #6 by writer Tom King and artist Clay Mann,

Gnarrk Gnarrk is a fictional character in DC Comics. He is a caveman who has been a member of various versions of the ''Teen Titans'' in the comic books in the early 1970s. Fictional character biography Pre-Crisis Prior to the ''Crisis on Infinite Earths ...

recites the poem on a full page showing him lying over his mammoth under a clear beautiful sky.

References

Bibliography

* Colvin, Sidney. ''John Keats: His Life and Poetry, His Friends, Critics and After-Fame'' (London: Macmillan, 1917)
Lancashire, Ian. 'John Keats: Bright Star', ''Representative Poetry Online'' (Toronto: University, 2003)
Retrieved July 27, 2005.

External links

* {{John Keats British poems Poetry by John Keats 1838 poems Love poems Love stories