Stars are
one of the most beautiful things in nature. Simply magical.
John Keats’s
“Bright Star! Would I Were Steadfast As Thou Art” reminded me
immediately of the saying that love is “the star of every wandering bark” in Shakespeare’s
Sonnet 116. The shining, sparkling feature of stars is usually the first thing that
comes up in people’s minds when they think about them. In the poem, however, Keats
emphasizes mainly on the bright star’s “steadfast” and “unchangeable” (9)
nature which allows it to overlook everything that happens on Earth. The imagery
of “moving waters” and “soft-fallen mask / Of snow” not only adds to the underlying
theme of nature’s beauty, but also shows that only by staying still on the sky
can the star observe them, suggesting that one can attain so much more in a
relationship with faithful and undying love.
Nonetheless, the bright star is not all that perfect. Its loneliness of hanging on the sky
eternally with no companion cannot be compared with the speaker’s joy of
spending his life with his “fair love” (10). He is not fond of being a “sleepless
Eremite” (4) like the star. Or perhaps we can say that, unless we can find
someone that has the same persistent view towards love, we might as well be
just like the star, shining alone in the dark.
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