Writing Assignments

Keats’ “Bright Star” and Frost’s “Choose Something like a Star,” although similar in their apostrophe to a star, differ in form, tone, and theme. The latter contains an allusion to the former, bringing Keats’ themes into Frost’s poem. In order to compare these poems, it is necessary to look carefully at their themes and structures.

“Bright Star” is a sonnet in traditional iambic pentameter. Its tone is elegiac as it celebrates the woman’s beauty and the speaker’s love for her in his plea for steadfastness. The poem opens with an apostrophe to the star, which calls attention to his plea. The verbs “would” and “were” indicate his wish to be like the star that he addresses as “thou.” The star is “hung” in the night, a pleasant image, and he uses a simile to compare it with an eremite, a hermit, who presumably sat apart from the world watching the eyelids of the personified star eternally apart, always watching “patiently” and “sleeplessly.” Keats then enumerates what the star 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 personified snow that wears a mask, hiding the mountains and moors. The alliteration of those two words suggests the falling of the snow in a murmuring wind. The repetition of the word “of” in lines 6 and 8 underlines the parallel structure that of the description of the two scenes the star regards. Abruptly, the word “No” interrupts the peaceful rhythm of the second quatrain. The speaker does not want to look at pastoral scenery but at his lover. The words “still steadfast, still unchangeable” emphasize the fact that this constancy is similar to that of the star regarding the earth. The speaker wishes to lie on his lover’s breast, which he indirectly compares to a pillow and further describes as ripening, suggesting her fertility. The fall and swell of the rhythm of line 11 suggests her breathing. The speaker will be in a state of unrest, yet a happy one. The repetition of “still” underlines his intense desire and the “t” alliteration the tenderness of her breath. The final line sets up a contrast, and the hyphen divides it. He will live forever this way, or else he will die in a “swoon” – a faintness from overwhelming love. Either way he spends eternity faithful and steadfast to his lover. The rhyme in the final couplet adds to the summing up of quality where he expresses his main theme – to be as steadfast to her as a “bright star” is to the countryside.

Frost’s poem is quite different. The form is a bit freer. The poem is written in 25 octosyllabic lines in a conversational tone and a varying rhyme scheme. Frost too looks to the star to be steadfast, although in his case it is steadfast in a moral or political senese, not in a romantic one. As does Keats, Frost begins with an apostrophe and adds to it “the fairest one in sight,” a humorous allusion to the traditional child’s wishing rhyme. Similarly, the speaker would derive a sort of wish from the star. The words “your loftiness” humorously plays on “your highness,” reflecting its physical and moral height above the speaker. Through the word “we,” the speaker also grants the star some anonymity, some aspects of a hermit isolated and watching the earth through some obscurity of cloud. Darkness brings out the light, subtly suggesting that “we” see the star’s stoic steadfastness when something “dark” and evil takes place on earth. However, Frost does not allow the star to get away with saying nothing. His “position” requires his contributing advice. The speaker implores the star to say something catchy, that he can cling to – and the run on line emphasizes the energy of this begging. “Say something” disrupts the rhythm and adds even more desperation to his plea. All the star says is “I burn.” With a tongue in cheek tone, Frost implores the star to add scientific details, the kind humans like to deal with. He speaks of “Fahrenheit” and “Centigrade” as if they are languages – and capitalizes “Language,” for this purpose. However, it doesn’t really help that much, he says. In line 18the speaker shifts his to referring to the star as “it” and alludes directly to Keats’ poem. The speaker asserts that the star is like Keats’ eremite that steadfastly watched the going-on on earth. In this allusion, the speaker continues the “poetic tradition” but adds the depth of meaning of Keats’ poem to his own. The star doesn’t want much of us – only to stand above us so that when “the mob is swayed” or when social, political, or moral upheaval takes place (and the norm is to be radical) the star likes being above it all, condescendingly regarding the earth. When this happens, we should “choose something like a star” and concentrate on it. In the final line he similarity between “stay” and “staid” emphasizes that we must emulate the star in being constant and moderate while society may revolve around s in social or political turmoil. This “staidness” is our key to survival – like the star’s.

Therefore, one can see that these poems, although similar in their titles and central images of the star, differ in their themes, form, and treatment of the author’s ideas.