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.
- John Keats (1820)
Today's poem of the day comes from one of England's most famous Romantic poets, John Keats. Keats is almost as well known for his short, tragic life as for his famous odes (including Ode on a Grecian Urn, and Ode to a Nightingale).
Bright Star is a sonnet written for Keats's most prominent love interest, Fanny Brawne. Though Keats was deeply in love with Brawne, they could not be wed due to his lack of financial security as a struggling poet. Not long after their ill-fated courtship began, Keats was ordered by his doctors to leave England for a warmer country, in an attempt to stave off the tuberculosis he had contracted while caring for his ailing brother Tom. Keats moved to Rome, where he suffered increasingly poor health. He ultimately succumbed to the disease in February of 1821, at the age of 25. Brawne was devastated, and mourned Keats for 6 years following his death. Jane Campion's 2009 film Bright Star dramatizes the relationship between Keats and Brawne.
Keats was not particularly well recognized as a poet during his short life. However, his poems are some of the most studied in contemporary English language and literature courses.
