Christopher Clemente

“Bright Star” by John Keats

The first impression that I got when I read this poem was that it is definitely a love poem and that it gave a superficial feel with the nature scenery and had a sexual undertone.  I viewed the bright star as a symbol of an unattainable love or desire closely resembling something that Edgar Allen Poe would write.  In those days stars were very important for telling the time and the seasons and for direction and guidance.  Also, the physical attributes of stars were not known so they remained a astrological mystery.  The star was the focal point of the poem with all of the other elements pointing towards it in a pyramid like fashion.

Then I read the poem again, and then again.  The more that I tried to understand the romantic attitude, the more that I began to understand the tone or feeling of the poem.  This poem is about darkness, illumination and true appreciation of beauty and love.  The scene is set during a winter night.  This is so important because during a snow-laden winter day, where there is a bright Sun shining, it is very difficult to see the white snow against a backdrop because everything is so bright.  The night time actually illuminates the fresh snow and the wintery scene because it contrasts against anything un-white.  The light shining from the star serves as the scene’s illumination and background and sense of enlightenment.  Keats writes that the star is “watching, with eternal lids apart.”  It is almost if the star is human and all knowing.  Not like God though, but like a force of wisdom or understanding.  I am also persuaded to believe that the star is the moon because of the magnitude of the illumination and Keats makes reference to the “moving waters … round earth’s human shores.”  (This might be the tides which are caused by the Moon’s gravitational pull.)

The poem migrates from the natural scenery to his love – the sleeping woman.  I visualize this beautiful white woman laid on a flat bed breathing softly, almost imperceptibly.  Her body being illuminated by the star’s light.  But she only seems barely alive, like she is in a coma or deep sleep.  She is breathing but nothing more and it seems like she is going to die.  Does she really represent a woman or something else?  Could this be the image of his fiancé after they had made love and while she slept? Or could this woman be a representation of something else that he loved like poetry and beauty?  Whatever it might be it is the light from the star that brings it into focus and causes Keats to have the realization that he could not live without her or it.