...beyond its boundaries, and he therefore assumes full responsibility for a metaphor, even a daring one: "The moving waters at their priestlike task / Of pure ablution round earth's human shores." Everyone agrees that Keats has allowed his fancy to soar, but at least he makes no apology for that....

...fire, Give me new Phcenix wings to fly at my desire. BRIGHT STAR Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art — Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with etemal lids apart. Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite, The moving waters at their priestlike...

...far, the experience of being there, talking. To get more, the reader goes on with the poem. Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art — Not in...priestlike task Of pure ablution round earth's human shores — As soon as Keats says "not," the situation becomes more complicated: he wants to be like the star...

...Keats's reference to "Eremite" in the following lines is an example: Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art — Not in lone splendour hung aloft the...Eremite, The moving waters at their priestlike task. . . . ("Bright star, would I were stedfast . . .") In order for the allusion to work, the reader naturally...

...sighs to save, Lay me, O where Sad true lover never flnd my grave, To weep there. Shakespeare Bright Star! would I were steadfast as thou art — Not in...night. And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like Nature s patient sleepless Eremite, The moving waters at their priestlike task Of pure ablution round...

...The poem resonates with phrases and ideas that Keats had used in his recent letters to Fanny: Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art — Not in...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,...

...Byron 177:18, 180:10, Lockhart 4-2:10, Yeats Xj6:;; see also Epitaphs 303:? 14 Bright star, would 1 were steadfast as thou art — Not in lone splendour...task Of pure ablution round earth's human shores. 'Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art' (written 1819) 15 The imagination of a boy is healthy,...

...probably a sonnet is at hand. BRIGHT STAR (John Keats, 1795-1821) Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art — Not in lone splendour hung aloft the...eternal lids apart, Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,1 The moving waters at their priestlike task Of pure ablution round earth's human shores, Or...

...poetry; in Keats's 'magic casements opening on the foam of perilous seas in faery lands forlorn';0 in his 'moving waters at their priest-like task of pure ablution round earth's human shore';0 in Shakespeare's 'floor of heaven,' 'inlaid with patens of bright gold'; and in his Dido standing...

...sea, snow, and earth, all being so close to the Shakespearian vision in Antony and Cleopatra : Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art — Not in...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,...