Wednesday, September 14, 2011

"Bright Star" by John Keats

I feel the speaker is wanting to make a certain moment last forever. I think this is a moment shared with his lover- "pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast, to feel forever its soft fall and swell". The speaker wants to be "unchangeable" like the star so he can stay in this pleasant moment with his lover forever. This is one quality of the star he wants to possess; he does not want to be like the star in any other way. For example, he does not want to be alone like the star- "not in lone splendor hung aloft the night". I found a few religious images as well, like "priestlike task" and "Eremite" which is a hermit as I just learned- the word hermit is most closely associated to monks. Also, I just found that the speaker talks of "ablution" in the section discussing the qualities he does not want to possess; he is basically saying he does not want to be purified. Because of these religious images, I think perhaps the speaker does not want to- or maybe even can't- emulate the qualities of a religious person because the love he was speaking of is impure and out of wedlock.

Until Next Time,
Alysse

No comments:

Post a Comment