| John Keats (1795–1821). The Poetical Works of John Keats. 1884. |
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| 59. Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art |
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| BRIGHT star! would I were steadfast as thou art— | |
| Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night, | |
| And watching, with eternal lids apart, | |
| Like Nature’s patient sleepless Eremite, | |
| The moving waters at their priestlike task | 5 |
| 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, | |
| Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast, | 10 |
| To feel for ever its soft fall and swell, | |
| Awake for ever in a sweet unrest, | |
| Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, | |
And so live ever—or else swoon to death.
finis | |
| | | See Notes. |
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