In “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”, the first two stanzas start with the same sentence. Stanzas I presents the state (alone and loitering) and ends up with lifeless (sedge wither’d and no birds sing). Stanzas II is more about the feeling. Keats uses squirrel’s granary is full to contrast lifeless. Stanzas III says lily at the beginning and then shift to a fading rose. Lily is a symbol of death and rose is a symbol of beauty. It means that beauty will leave after your death. Stanzas IV-VI and Stanzas VII-IX have a different focus. IV-VI start with the word “I”, but VII-IX shift the focus and the main character is the lady. Stanzas X and XI talk about the dream. In the end, Stanzas XI is using the same line (On the cold hill’s side) as Stanzas IX. It kind of pulls me back to the moment when the dream starts. In the end, it repeats from Stanzas I which reinforce the loneliness and lifeless.
In “Ode on Melancholy”, the tone of the first stanzas is negative. Many words are death-related such as poisonous wine, Proserpine, death-moth and owl. The second stanzas suggest the solution. However, in the last stanzas, it gives the conclusion of beauty – must die. Melancholy exists inside the temple of delight and also takes control of everything (Veil’d Melancholy has her Sovran shrine). In order to see the melancholy, you have to peel off the joy and then reveal the sadness. I also curious about Keats is using “she” for Melancholy. Does he mean that even the world is dominated by men but it is actually controlled by women?
“Bright Star” is different from Keats other poems. The idea is much lighter. He repeats the word stedfast twice, one at the beginning and the other in the middle of the poem, which send out a message of stableness (peaceful). While I was reading the poem, the tone sounds like a child takes to his/her mother (the start) when they both lying on the bed (Pillow’d upon my fair love’s repening breast).
-Kahing
I do not think the “Bright Star” by Keats are necessary means like a child’s love to his mother I feel like it’s more about a relationship with his girlfriend. Because in the poem is says “Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast” it pretty much shows us that he was laying on top of a woman that he loves and she is still young. So why does he use “Bright Star” to interpret his relationship.
First, as we all know good things about a star is it does not change, and is eternal, but the bad side is star’s aloneness. In the first and third of the poem he mention “Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art”, and “And watching, with eternal lids apartthis”. This two lines show us he wants to be the star because star does not change, is eternally watching over his love. The line two and four show the loneliness of the star, the star is alone in the sky patient and never sleeps. From line ten to thirteen, is the first time that he talked about how he would like to be rest his head on his girlfriend’s breast, to feel her breathing, would rather remain awake forever. The final line the line that takes us from the cosmic perspective to the human perspective which is if he cannot live the way he wants it he would rather die and star does not die.
Finally, I believe “Bright Star” By, Keats is talking about a guy wants her girlfriend comes back to him by using star as his current situation which are his love does not change, he will be eternally watching over her and his aloneness.
By simon(shilei chen)
I do agree with Simon, however I had a different idea when it came to this poem. It showed that the woman in the poem triumphed over a valiant knight. She might not have done it through combat but it shows that she uses her beauty and a man’s love towards a woman as well as their desire for sex as an advantage. A knight is portrayed as a King’s guard, a strong fighter, a noble warrior, yet the maiden in the poem makes him seem inferior to the point where the knight is convinced that she “loves” him. She is able to manipulate him and the knight lowers his guard because he finds an attraction for her. She is able to use this weakness in the knight and deceive him. The woman in the poem is a very mysterious character as there really is no background given besides that she is beautiful. However, the knight mentions her “wild eyes” many times, and the word “wild” is a sort of spontaneous, unexpected and crazy. This could be the reason as to why she poisoned the knight as there was no insight or motive given from her point of view. My assumption was that a woman being able to take down a knight symbolizes the rise in strength in women, as a woman was portrayed as weak and inferior to a male, but in the play not only does she take down a man, but a knight which shows a great deal of strength.