Bright Star
“Watching, with eternal lids apart,"
Keats uses the literary device of personification to gives us a clearer image of what eternity might feel like. He imagines the star as a person, with eyelids, who is always watching.
“Watching, with eternal lids apart,"
Keats uses the literary device of personification to gives us a clearer image of what eternity might feel like. He imagines the star as a person, with eyelids, who is always watching.
In the opening lines, the poet establishes the image of the star that is the central focus of the poem. The star is said to be eternal "patient", unchanging "sleepless", and beyond the speaker's immediate grasp "aloft". The star is described as watching over earth rather than being watched by someone.
In the opening lines, the poet establishes the image of the star that is the central focus of the poem. The star is said to be eternal "patient", unchanging "sleepless", and beyond the speaker's immediate grasp "aloft". The star is described as watching over earth rather than being watched by someone.
Bright star! Would I were steadfast as thou art
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
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
“Like Nature’s patient sleepless Eremite” By calling the star an "Eremite," Keats's is emphasizing the star's aloneness.
“Like Nature’s patient sleepless Eremite” By calling the star an "Eremite," Keats's is emphasizing the star's aloneness.
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors---
No---yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillowed 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 in death.
John Keats
ABOUT:
The
Keats uses the literary device of personification to gives us a clearer image of what eternity might feel like. He imagines the star as a person, with eyelids, who is always watching.
“Watching, with eternal lids apart,"
Keats uses the literary device of personification to gives us a clearer image of what eternity might feel like. He imagines the star as a person, with eyelids, who is always watching.
In the opening lines, the poet establishes the image of the star that is the central focus of the poem. The star is said to be eternal "patient", unchanging "sleepless", and beyond the speaker's immediate grasp "aloft". The star is described as watching over earth rather than being watched by someone.
In the opening lines, the poet establishes the image of the star that is the central focus of the poem. The star is said to be eternal "patient", unchanging "sleepless", and beyond the speaker's immediate grasp "aloft". The star is described as watching over earth rather than being watched by someone.
Bright star! Would I were steadfast as thou art
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
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
“Like Nature’s patient sleepless Eremite” By calling the star an "Eremite," Keats's is emphasizing the star's aloneness.
“Like Nature’s patient sleepless Eremite” By calling the star an "Eremite," Keats's is emphasizing the star's aloneness.
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors---
No---yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillowed 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 in death.
John Keats
ABOUT:
The