Bright Star by John Keats is a lovely poem about love. Before we first tackle the poem, it is interesting to note John Keats background in the land of love. Keats met and fell in love with Fanny Brawne. However, when the two met and became engaged, Keats was too poor to support the engagement. Therefore, the couple kept their engagement a secret from all but their closest friends. His poem about love describes a torn relationship between his everlasting love for a woman (who we can assume is Fanny) and being close to her.
In the poem Bright Star, Keats, in the first line, establishes his longing to possess the characteristics of a star. "Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art--". This literally means he wants to be as steadfast as the star. Steadfast has multiple meanings such as: 1. firmly fixed in place: immovable and not subject to change. 2. Firm in belief, determination, or adherence: loyal. Another word for steadfast is faithful. In the context of the poem, it is clear that Keat's wants a love for his woman that is fixed and that will never fade away. This is jsut like how the stars are always shining and never moving. He will be eternally faithful to Fanny.
The next seven lines describe the characteristics of a star that Keat's does not desire. "Not in lone splendor hung aloft the night/ And watching, with eternal lids apart,/ Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite/The moving waves 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". The faithful star also has to be way up the sky and watching from afar all these aspects of life. Even though he is able to watch all of them, he is separated from them because he is way up in the sky. Keat's doesn't want to be far away from his Fanny.
After this realization of the separation that accompanies being like a star, there is a change in tone. "No- yet still steadfast, still unchangeable, Pillow'ed 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". He wants to be with her. Next to her. Feeling her presence next to him. In conclusion, he longs for a immovable and changeless love that he will be able to feel everyday. He never wants to be separated from Fanny. "And so live ever--or else swoon to death", The final line of the poem is very strong. Keats states that if he is forced to live without Fanny, he would rather die. He wants to live with love or die without it.
