Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LAST SONNET (REVISED VERSION), by JOHN KEATS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LAST SONNET (REVISED VERSION), by             Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Bright star! Would I were steadfast as thou art
Last Line: And so live ever -- or else swoon to death.
Variant Title(s): "sonnet Composed On Leaving England;sonnet Written On A Blank Page;sonnet On 'a Lover's Complaint';bright Star;keats's Last Sonnet;""bright Star! Would I Were Steadfast As Thou Art"";sonnet: Bright Star;
Subject(s): Desire; Love; Stars


BRIGHT star! would I were steadfast as thou art
Not in lone splendor 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 forever its soft fall and swell,
Awake forever in a sweet unrest;
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever -- or else swoon to death.




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