Bright Star John Keats Analysis

John Keats was a poet who saw nature as being exhilarating and beautiful. He often drew comparisons between nature and poetry to express his thoughts. In his poems “Bright Star” and “When I have fears,” John Keats uses alliteration and personification to express his emotions towards mortality. In “Bright Star,” he uses these devices to express his desire to be eternal and permanent by comparing them to a star. Similarly, in “When I have Fears,” he uses them to capture his fear of dying before accomplishing greatness in writing and romance. In both poems, he uses alliteration to overcome his fears by realizing the unimportance of eternity and fame. Thus, by using the same poetic devices, he ultimately expresses his fear of the inevitable death

First in “Bright Star,” through the use of alliteration and personification, he expresses his desire to be immortal and unchanging like the star. Through which he delves into his want of eternity and permanence. Moreover, he clarifies his desire later as he explains that he wants to live forever but to only do so if he is forever with his lover. He explains that he does not want to be alone in the sky like the star; he wants to be with his lover. In the end, he states “and so live ever or else swoon to death” (14). He accepts the fact that death is inevitable and he chooses to spend his dying days in the arms of his lover. Similarly in “When I have Fears,” Keats expresses his emotions towards death, except this time, from the perspective of a poet. Through alliteration and personification he relays his fears of not being able to write all his knowledge on paper and his fears of death denying him fame and love. As with “Bright Star,” by the end of the poem he comes to terms with death. He states, “ Of the wide world I stand alone, and think/ Till love and fame to nothingness do sink” (13-14), thus acknowledging that in the grand scheme of things, love and fame do not