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"Bright Star" By John Keats Bright star, would I were steadfast 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.

In the poem, "Bright Star" by John Keats, the author shows a close insight of intimacy between two people who are in love. One of these lovers is asleep while the other lover hopes to guard his lover for eternity, like a star. Along with this wish, the speaker also wishes to be "Awake for ever." These two wishes contradict eachother though. To love, he must be human and to be a star he wouldn't be able to love at all. The only option he feels is possible is to "Swoon to death". This means that the speaker wishes to die when he experiences the power of love. As a whole, this poem can be seen as a hope for both qualities though this wish is impossible.

An apostrophe is seen in "Bright Star" through the lines: "Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art- Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night" This is an example of an apostrophe because the speaker is talking to a star which is something non human that could not reply to anything the speaker is saying. Keats decides to use apostrophe in "Bright Star" because the speaker in the poem wants to be a star. The speaker talks to the star and wishes to become it so that he can guard his sleeping lover for eternity.

K. Fisher

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"Bright Star" by John Keats