Bright Star, would I were stedfast as thou art Analysis

FormKeats's poem is written in one of his favorite poetic forms – the sonnet. We at Shmoop are hoping that it will become one of your favorite poetic forms too, but first, we'd better give yo...

We are not told the name of the speaker in Keats's poem. In fact, if it's cold hard facts you're looking for, the poem is bound to disappoint: it doesn't really tell us anything about who the speak...

The poem begins with a speaker addressing a star. This tells us that the setting is at night. Well, at least the "imagined" setting is – this is a "lyric" poem, so it's more about recounting...

Maybe the most amazing thing about this poem is the powerful sense its sounds and rhythms give us of time and the passing of time. The opening of the poem is slow: not only does "Bright Star" have...

Properly speaking, Keats's poem doesn't have a title, which is why we refer to it by its first line. (Sometimes you'll see people referring to it simply as "Bright Star," which is a shortened versi...

Keats uses the word "still" in this poem with two different meanings. Of the two meanings, the first one, from line 9, is the most unfamiliar to us – because it's old fashioned. In this old-f...

In terms of its themes of Love, Death, Eternity, and Transience, Keats's poem is very accessible. Like, we know that these themes are pretty heavy and all, but we're also pretty sure that just abou...

How steamy you think this poem is depends on how much imagination you use in reading it. Here, the question basically boils down to how we're supposed to imagine the scene of the speaker lying with...