Bright Star

for Solo soprano or tenor with string quartet and piano; Solo soprano or tenor with orchestra

6 min.
2012

The text for this piece is by English Romantic poet John Keats (1795–1821.) This sonnet is believed to have been written for Fanny Brawne, Keats’ fiance through the last two years of his life, before his death of tuberculosis at age 25. The poem was not officially published for the first time until 1838, 17 years after Keats’ death. Keats copied the final version of the poem into a volume of The Poetical Works of William Shakespeare, opposite Shakespeare’s poem, A Lover’s Complaint.

The poem describes a moment of bliss for the poet, “Pillowed upon my Fair love’s ripening breast,” so perfect that he wishes to be as steadfast and eternal as the star, “awake forever in a sweet unrest,” or else die at that moment when he is experiencing such ecstacy.

The following excerpt from a letter to Fanny Brawne in May 3, 1818 may provide some insight into the meaning of the poem:

“I have two luxuries to brood over in my walks, your Loveliness and the hour of my death. O that I could have possession of them both in the same minute…”

Keats closed this letter with “Your’s ever, fair Star.”

Text

Bright star, would I were stedfast 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 stedfast, still unchangeable, Pillow'd 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