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1. What are the effects of this poem’s structure? At first analysis of the rhyme scheme, many would describe the “Bright Star” as an English, Shakespearean sonnet. However, after a closer analysis reveals a structure of eight and then six lines rhymes interweaving, an octave preceding a sestet, it becomes evident that the poem conforms to the structure of an Italian sonnet. This merger of two sonnet types into one larger sonnet is deliberate. By harnessing the most powerful aspects of the Italian and English sonnets into a single sonnet, Keats is able to present structurally his ideas while also emphasizing the couplet. The Petrarchan sonnet lends a structured outline to the ideas displayed within the sonnet; the first eight lines share a common theme while the last six lines, although only a modification of the first idea presented, discuss an alternative theme. The reason Keats includes features from the English sonnet is to emphasize the couplet. The "mask" is the covering of snow on the ground. This snow has pleasing connotations, being "new" and "soft." All the moon can do is "gaze." 2. What are the effects of one or two of this poem’s rhymes? One of the most important rhymes in the poem “Bright Star” is “breath” with “death”. An analysis of this rhyme allows for further exploration into Keats’ reasons for incorporating the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet. Keats’ approach draws the attention of the reader to the couplet to emphasize his desire to “live [for]ever” in eternity with his love. Although not a unique, this rhyme still successfully incorporates a tragic aspect of the poem and highlights the author’s deep desire to be immortal only if he is able to live in eternity with someone he loves. 3. What... ... middle of paper ... ..., race, or eros, or death, or class, or nature, or gender, or whatever? In Keats’ “Bright Star” and Robert Frost’s “Choose Something Like a Star”, both authors observe the North Star similarly. However, in each poem, the star comforts the author in a different way. While Keats is unsettled by the thought of the star spending eternity alone, he is comforted by the idea that the star spends eternity in one location. In “Choose Something Like a Star”, the star’s ability to help humanity comforts Frost. While the authors are comforted in only slightly different ways in the texts, the styles of the two poems differ significantly. In “Bright Star” Keats uses elevated diction and iambic pentameter to create an eloquent poem. While in “Choose Something Like a Star”, Frost uses colloquial diction, free verse, and a slight accusatory tone to create a less formal tone.
Keats "Bright Star" and Frost's "Choose Something Like a Star" although similar in their address to a star differ in form, tone and theme. The latter contains an illusion to the former that brings Keats' themes into the poem. In order to compare these poems it is necessary to look carefully at their themes and constructions. "Bright Star" is a sonnet in traditional iambic pentameter. Its tone is elegiac as it celebrates the woman's beauty and his love for her in his plea for steadfastness. The poem opens with an apostrophe to the star which calls our attention to his plea. The verbs "would" and "were" indicate his wish to be like the star whom he addresses as "thou." The star is "hung" in the night, a pleasant image, and he uses a simile to compare it with Eremite, a hermit, who presumably sat apart from the world watching. The eyelids of this star (the star is given anthropomorphic qualities) are eternally apart -- always watching, "patiently" and "sleeplessly." Keats then enumerates what this star watches. It watches water -- which is also steadfast as indicated by the comparison "priest-like." The waters that surround the land Keats says are performing ablutions or cleansings and blessings on the land. The star also gazes upon the snow. He uses the metaphor of snow as a "mask" (more personification) as it hides the mountains and moors. The "m" alliteration emphasizes the falling of the snow. The repetition of "of" underlines the parallel structure and idea of the two scenes the star regards. The rhythm of this 2nd quatrain is slow and peaceful like the scene. Then Keats puts a "No -- " w...
John Keats’s illness caused him to write about his unfulfillment as a writer. In an analysis of Keats’s works, Cody Brotter states that Keats’s poems are “conscious of itself as the poem[s] of a poet.” The poems are written in the context of Keats tragically short and painful life. In his ...
In Bright Star, Keats utilises a mixture of the Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnet forms to vividly portray his thoughts on the conflict between his longing to be immortal like the steadfast star, and his longing to be together with his love. The contrast between the loneliness of forever and the intenseness of the temporary is presented in the rich natural imagery and sensuous descriptions of his true wishes with Fanny Brawne. The structure of Bright Star is unique in that it breaks free of the limitations of the sonnet form, a form that is notorious for its strict and constrained nature. The rhyme scheme falls very close to the Shakespearean rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG, in which the last two lines represent the final heroic couplet. However, the rhyme of the ninth line (‘unchangeable’) is never continued, as the eleventh line (‘swell’), which the Shakespearean form dictates should rhyme with the ninth line, doesn’t rhyme fully.
The imposition of the British aggressor is even made apparent through the structure of the work, the two sonnet form stanzas not only highlight the inadequacy of the loveless union, but with their Shakespearean rhyme scheme also imply the cultural dominance of English tradition. The use of half rhymes, such as ‘pulse’ and ‘burst’ or ‘pain’ and ‘within’ leaves the stanzas feel...
Keats, John. Bright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne. New
Keats’ poetry explores many issues and themes, accompanied by language and technique that clearly demonstrates the romantic era. His poems ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ and ‘Bright Star’ examine themes such as mortality and idealism of love. Mortality were common themes that were presented in these poems as Keats’ has used his imagination in order to touch each of the five senses. He also explores the idea that the nightingale’s song allows Keats to travel in a world of beauty. Keats draws from mythology and christianity to further develop these ideas. Keats’ wrote ‘Ode To A Nightingale’ as an immortal bird’s song that enabled him to escape reality and live only to admire the beauty of nature around him. ‘Bright Star’ also discusses the immortal as Keats shows a sense of yearning to be like a star in it’s steadfast abilities. The visual representation reveal these ideas as each image reflects Keats’ obsession with nature and how through this mindset he was able
This allows for a smooth transition in his description of the ritual that marks a soldier’s death. To draw attention to the tears “in their eyes”, which could be in the eyes of the dead soldier or of their brothers at war, they are connected to the “glimmer of good-byes”, to represent the quick mourning for the soldiers (10-11). The connection here is furthered with the use of enjambment at the end of the tenth line; with no grammatical separation, the thought smoothly transitions from one line to the other. On the other hand, Keats uses the exact Shakespearean rhyme In the sonnets “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be”, by John Keats, and “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, by Wilfred Owen, the poets’ use of formal elements create distinctions to mark the speakers’ thoughts and build upon the situation.
On the surface Philip Sidney’s “Astrophil and Stella” is a poem about courting a young woman. It is a common assumption and an easily justified one. The title presumes as much as the “star lover” clings to hopes of attaining the “star”. Astrophil attempts to win the heart of Stella through his poetry. Although he is not short of emotion he is in search of adequate words. The true purpose of the poem reveals itself at the end, “look in thy heart, and write” (Sidney Line 14). This sonnet is about the courting of a lover, but it is more importantly the story of numerous writers throughout time. Sidney is portraying the writer with writer’s block and the method to subjugate this voluminous evil. Every writer, at one time or another develops a case of writer’s block. A period in which it becomes difficult to express your thoughts or ideas on paper with the qualities the writer desires. Astrophil and Stella is a metaphor for the relationship between a writer and his audience, a writer and his work, a writer at battle with writer’s block.
In Keats “Ode to a Nightingale” we see the sense embodied through a variety of different literary techniques and in particular his use of synaesthesia imagery. The dejected downhearted nature of the poem promotes emotion in the reader even before noting poetic devices at work. The structure of the meter is regular and adds to the depth of this poe...
An “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats is one of five great odes, characterized by great technical difficulty. The speaker, presumably Keats, addresses an “unravish’d bride,” which is the first of many figurative language techniques used in the ode, in five stanzas, each stanza complete with a separate subject. It is assumed that Keats was diagnosed with tuberculosis as he was composing this poem, which can explain the interest with immortality throughout the narrative. The structure Keats crafts along with his usage of figurative language allows for the overall theme of the poem to be presented; however, Keats usage of paradoxes implies a dual theme with several lines of his ode, which is the reason as to why there are several interpretations of an “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” The structure of the ode seems simple enough- five stanzas, ten lines each, and a precise iambic pentameter.
In order to experience true sorrow one must feel true joy to see the beauty of melancholy. However, Keats’s poem is not all dark imagery, for interwoven into this poem is an emerging possibility of resurrection and the chance at a new life. The speaker in this poem starts by strongly advising against the actions and as the poem continues urges a person to take different actions. In this poem, the speaker tells of how to embrace life by needing the experience of melancholy to appreciate the true joy and beauty of
Within this poem, Keats explores the idea that beauty within life is temporary. Life will eventually go on and may end in disaster while art can capture a beautiful moment forever. When evaluating those ideas within the work, it is important to know about Keat’s background and understand that he was slowly dying and soon he would not be on earth. This idea is expressed in the lines “Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu; / And, happy melodist, unwearied”(22-23) where he expresses how beauty is important because it will remain long after he dies from his illness.
(9-10), sets the depressing mood of the poem. Also the personification of the word joy, describing it as slain. Starting from the (ninth line) there is a volta, a shift in the tone of the poem. Traditionally in a sonnet the volta is where there is a resolution of some sort. However, in the case of this poem the shift discards any hope that the speaker
Though ballads and Sonnets are poems that can depict a picture of someone’s beloved, they can have many differences. For instance, a Ballad is a story in short stanzas such as a song would have, where as a sonnet typical, has a traditional structure of 14 lines employing several rhyme schemes and adheres to a tight thematic organization. Both Robert Burn’s ballad “The Red, Red, Rose, and William Shakespeare’s “of the Sonnet 130 “they express their significant other differently. However, “The Red, Red, Rose depicts the Falling in new love through that of a young man’s eyes, and Shakespeare’s sonnet 130 depicts a more realistic picture of the mistress he writes about; which leaves the reader to wonder if beauty is really in the eyes of the beholder.
The fourteen line sonnet is constructed by three quatrains and one couplet. With the organization of the poem, Shakespeare accomplishes to work out a different idea in each of the three quatrains as he writes the sonnet to lend itself naturally. Each of the quatrain contains a pair of images that create one universal idea in the quatrain. The poem is written in a iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Giving the poem a smooth rhyming transition from stanza to