John keats bright star when was it written

This time, the poem is being read by the American scholar and critic Helen Vendler. Lifemask of John Keats This is a plaster cast of Keats's face made while he was alive.

Deathmask of John Keats This is a plaster cast of Keats's face made shortly after his death. Letters by John Keats In addition to being one of the greatest English poets, John Keats was also one of the greatest English letter writers. You can read a selection of his letters to friends and family here.

The chapter focuses on Keats's use of the sonnet form — the same form as "Bright Star. The Odes of John Keats , by Helen Vendler This book explores in detail what are often considered Keats's greatest poems, the series of "Odes" he wrote towards the end of his brief life. La belle dame sans merci , This film is based on another poem by John Keats.

You can read the poem here , and learn more about the movie through the above link. Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. La Belle Dame sans Merci.

Ode on a Grecian Urn. Ode on Melancholy. Ode to a Nightingale. Ode to Psyche. On First Looking into Chapman's Homer. On Seeing the Elgin Marbles. The Eve of St. LitCharts Teacher Editions. The author of this article, Dr Oliver Tearle, is a literary critic and lecturer in English at Loughborough University. Enter your email address to subscribe to this site and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address. Keats was not a regular churchgoing Christian and is generally known to have had a 'lack of faith', hence the nickname Keats the pagan , which was not altogether fair or accurate. He was intensely religious—nature was his spiritual source—but did not practice conventional Christian beliefs.

The long sentence continues with a description of a snowy landscape, bringing to mind a cold, distant-if-idealistic visual. The speaker has no wish for this 'lone splendour'—there has to be more. The turn, or volta, occurs here. The speaker wants to be fixed and constant, but he also wants to be with his love Fanny Brawne , using her breasts as a pillow, sensing their movement as he lies awake forever in this restless state.

The language here is plain "for ever, ever" , reflecting the longing for an eternal loving relationship. Either it must be or not. Death will be the outcome otherwise. So the speaker, the poet, in near desperation wishes to exist in love with his love for all time.

He wants to be like the star but can this ever be realised? Surely it's not on? Being human is all about being changeable, vulnerable and subject to the vagaries of the world. There are allusions to a sexual motive here—the lover's breast, the sweet unrest, the tender-taken breath, the swoon to death in pure orgasm? This seems unlikely, however, given Keats' own personal health and future prospects.

Bright Star has a basic iambic pentameter beat but has several lines that break the familiar da DUM stress pattern of the iambic, bringing varied rhythm and pace. For example, the first foot of the first line is a spondee with double stress for stronger effect at the start.

And the second line begins with a trochee, or the first syllable stressed. Note in line 8 how an amphibrach and anapaest combine to produce a lilting rhythm that rises. This combination repeats in the last line to good effect. In this section, we'll examine some of the poetic devices Keats employed in this Shakespearean sonnet.