Bright Star

John Keats 1795 (Moorgate) – 1821 (Rome)




   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
       Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--
   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,
   Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
   And so live ever--or else swoon to death.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 01, 2023

31 sec read
998

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAACDCEFGFGHH
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 657
Words 102
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

John Keats

John Keats was an English Romantic poet. more…

All John Keats poems | John Keats Books

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