John Keats - Bright Star

John Keats, 1795-1821
Begun April 1818, Completed February 1819, Publ 1838



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.




References

John Keats - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keats
Bright Star - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright_star,_would_I_were_steadfast_as_thou_art
Analysis - http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/star.html
Study Guide - http://www.brighthub.com/education/homework-tips/articles/52123.aspx
Study Guide - http://www.enotes.com/bright-star