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9.0
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(26
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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 steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillowed 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
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Read poems about / on: snow, star, nature, death, night, love, sonnet, water
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Comments about this poem (His Last Sonnet
by
John Keats
) |
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comments about this poem (His Last Sonnet by
John Keats
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Michael Pruchnicki
(10/6/2009 6:53:00 PM) |
Sometimes I wonder about the misconceptions some of you have about poetry and poets, but your garbled interpretations cause my wonder to dissipate in the fog of incomprehension I detect in your postings!
Alert to Albert Ahearn- 'His Last Sonnet' by John Keats is NOT a Shakespearean sonnet. Fourteen lines make a sonnet, OK! But when divided into an octave (eight lines rhyming ABABCDCD) - art / night / apart / eremite / task / shores / mask / moors // and a sestet (six lines rhyming EFEFGG) - able / breast / swell / unrest / breath / death, it is a PETRARCHAN sonnet! Remember that your high school teacher impressed upon your adolescent mind that Shakespeare wrote sonnets composed of three quatrains (four lines each) and a couplet (two lines) that summed up or resolved the problem raised in the three preceding quatrains!
The poet differs from the persona, the 'I' character in the sonnet that the poet creates to express the thoughts and feelings that many unwary readers take to be the poet expressing himself as the lover or whomever he pretends to be. Recall if you can that teacher who told you that the term 'persons' literally means 'mask! '
And forget Fanny Brawn or whomever else your restless mind and imagination construes as Keats's love interest in real life. Cite your sources, boy! Your vulgar line about the half-naked wench stretched out on the couch leaves most of us in the dark!
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Tai Chi Italy
(10/6/2009 3:29:00 PM) |
For me Keats is the most romantic hero in poetic terms. If this was infact his last sonnet before his death at such a young age, then it is written in the heightened spirit of his inspirations muse! Love and Death...our greatest preoccupation in life, the closer we get, the more inspired we are. When I read him in the 90's, that is when I realised what poetry was all about. Not actively constructed, but euphorically inspired, by death, by love, by life.
An amazingly sad and beautiful read.
Thanks John
Smiling at you
Tai
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Kerry O'Connor
(10/6/2009 10:16:00 AM) |
Considering the fact that Keats died at 26 years old after a long, malingering battle against TB, his preoccupation with death and his imminent separation from his beloved Fanny Brawn is quite understandable and sensitively penned.
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Albert Ahearn
(10/6/2009 6:39:00 AM) |
'In this single-sentence sonnet, Keats fixes his attention on a star in the sky, wishing that he had the ability to be as steadfast and watchful of the woman he loved (almost certainly Fanny Brawn at this point in his life) . Keats is such a drama queen that he wants to lie with her forever, 'pillowed on her breast' or else swoon to death. The poem, which is written using the Shakespearian sonnet form, uses iambic pentameter and the ABABCDCDEFEFGG rhyme scheme. The volta or 'turn' in the poem comes at the start of line 9, when Keats turns his attention from the star up in the sky to describing how he wishes to be able to have that star's immortal constancy in order to stay with his beloved.
Note how Keats begins the poem by addressing the star in the sky, but when he reaches the volta, he pretty much ceases to address the star, and talks to himself. Were this a performance on the stage, the actor might start his recitation by looking up to the star and gesturing, but he would almost undoubtedly turn his attention from the star to a more inward performance by the start of the 9th line, or else he might have a conveniently placed woman on a chaise lying about with whom to conclude the recitation.
I should note that this poem is sometimes referred to as 'the last sonnet', because it was for quite a long time believed to be the final sonnet Keats wrote before his death. Some dispute as to whether that is correct exists, but it does appear to be one of the last poems he completed before his death, even if it was drafted earlier than first believed.'
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Kevin Straw
(10/6/2009 6:04:00 AM) |
In Keats there is a melancholy (sometimes conscious, sometimes unconsciously expressed) that pervades much of his work. This melancholy proceeds from his frustration at his impending death which will cut off the full development of his poetry, and his sexual frustration. In this poem there is the paradox that he would exchange his eternal genius for love, but love which is like that of the lovers in the Ode to A Grecian Urn - eternally the same, never fully realised, but at the same time never frustrated. It is the poem of a man who passionately wants full sexual love, but at the same time fears it, and it is no less a poem for that. Compare the poem 'When I have fears that I may cease to be...' which deals with both frustrations.
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JOE POEWHIT
(10/6/2009 6:02:00 AM) |
Sort of brings to light, the depth of character in steadfastness, a shining star in the heavens.
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Ramesh T A
(10/6/2009 3:17:00 AM) |
A sensuous sonnet heightened to the stature of steadfast Star shows how passionate Keats is! No lover in the world would ever forget this great poet forever!
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Daphne Grant
(10/6/2007 5:52:00 PM) |
The poet is stating that he wished he could be as constant as the eternal star, and he says it in his own inimitable way.The message is summed up in the line, awake forever in a sweet unrest. Awake like the constant star, or if not and so live for ever - or else swoon to death. He is in such a state of joy, that he wished he could remain so forever; as the constant star. It is a very beautifull poem.
daphne Grant
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