N & Q on Keats' "Bright Star" (Ch. 17 of R&J)

1. (a) How does Keats use apostrophe* (the speaker's address to the bright star), as one of the sonnet's principal figures of speech, to convey something about the speaker's social, psychological, and emotional setting or state? (b) How does the repeated figure of speech personification* in the poem relate to question 1a? (c) In this sonnet about what we think of as the traditional Romantic or romantic subject, romantic love, how do the octave and sestet constitute distinct thought units? What transitional words signal the volta* or turn of the sestet? (d) Since Keats was pining for his sweetheart, Fanny Brawne (her real name, no kidding), and living in Hampstead, how might this sonnet aptly be retitled or subtitled "Sleepless in Hampstead"?

2. Try to fill in the missing information in the following table of tenors and vehicles in the poem:
 
 

Tenor	Vehicle
?	hung aloft
?	watching like sleepless eremite
?	eternal lids apart
?	priestlike task of pure ablution
?	mask
?	pillowed (further details of the vehicle implied)
?	ripening (further details of the vehicle implied)
?	swoon to death

2. (a) How is "mask/ Of snow upon the mountains and the moors" (lines 7-8) a compound metaphor, with implicit parts of both the tenor and vehicle? How should the missing information be filled in?
 

T1 - snow                                                                 V1 - mask
________                                                             __________

(T2) - [what the snow is doing]        =               (V2) - [what the mask is doing]
_________                                                            ______________

T3 - mountains & moors                                     (V3) - [what the mask is over]
 
 

How does the speaker's metaphor of the mask in lines 7-8 not only accurately describe the tenor by its vehicle but also suggest something about the speaker's sense of isolation, alienation, or loneliness? (b1) How does the figure of speech in "pillowed" (line 10) suggest aspects of size, shape, and resilience of the tenor? (b2) How does the figure of speech also point to the physical and psychological problem or the speaker (causing him to be up late enough to apostrophize the star), as well as the paradox that when the speaker achieves his goal he still won't get any sleep? (c1) How does the metaphor of "ripening" work in line 10: does the lady have some sort of skin rash turning her upper anatomy different colors? (Hint: the metaphor in line 10 is related to the last word in the next line.) (c2) How does ripening contrast with the star's Eremite or priestlike quality in the octave, as applied to the speaker or speaker's relationship to his sweetheart? (c3) How does ripening connect with "sweet" (line 12) or "tender" (line 13)? (d) What is the oxymoron* in line 12? How can each part of the contradiction of "sweet unrest" be explained, via lines 10-11? (e) How does the "sweet unrest" (line 12) paradoxically connect with the "sleepless" (line 4) comparisons in the octave, as well as the "pillowed" (line 10) comparison in the sestet? (f) How does the figure of speech hyperbole in the last four lines of the poem? Why might hyperbole be a figure of speech that frequently occurs in romantic love poetry?

3. All of the three problems in reading comprehension -- meanings of words, underlying grammatical structure, and elucidation of figurative language -- occur in this poem. (A) For word meaning, many students have only a vague or even erroneous idea of what the word "moors" (line ) means, while many students also do not fully comprehend the full meaning of "shores" (line 6) and "moving waters" (line 5). How do the "moving waters" reveal what the "shores" are, and vice versa? (B) Many students are derailed by the grammatical structure of lines 3-8, not comprehending who or what is doing the watching nor what exactly is being watched (a usual, incorrect, answer is that "Nature's patient, sleepless eremite" is being watched). First, a reader should note that "watching" (line 3) and "gazing" (line 7) are parallel, and that the star is engaging in these actions. Next, a reader should realize that line 4 is a prepositional phrase interrupter, and that the true object of the participle "watching" occurs in line 5. So what is the star "watching"?

4. One tendency of apprentice literary analysts is to focus only on individual details separately but not to take the next step and see connections among them. (A) For example, how does the "sleepless eremite" (line 4) connect with "priestlike" (line 5)? (B) Relative to the uncomfortable situation of the speaker, why might he add the adjective "human" to his reference of "earth's human shores" (line 6)? How does this reference in "human shores" contrast with the "sleepless eremite"? (C) How are "ripening" (line 10) and "sweet" in "sweet unrest" (line 12) connected? (D) How does an overall pattern of static versus dynamic occur in the figurative language of the poem?

5. Keats, as in lines 13-14, like fellow Romantic poet Shelley, often strikingly talks about a kind of self-euthanasia in his poetry. How was this subject likely to be on Keats's mind at a young age, given biographical details of Keats's life? How were the references to death in the poetry of Keats and Shelley eerily actualized in each author?

6. For an interesting parallel and contrast to Keats's poem, consider Paul Anka's "Lonely Boy," a 45-rpm hit single (4 weeks at #1 on the Billboard charts, in 1959)