Upon a close reading, comparing and contrasting Robert Frost’s “Choose Something Like a Star” and John Keats’ “Bright Star,” has displayed the obvious similarities and differences of the two, but also the subtle implications of deeper similarities based on the lives of the two poets. Both, for their different reasons, based their poems on the steadfastness of a star. There is intimacy present in “Bright Star” versus the public concern in “Choose Something Like a Star.” There is envy of the star in Keats’ poem, where Frost appreciates what “little aid” it does offer us. “Bright Star” is based on the romantic properties of the star, where “Choose Something Like a Star” is primarily, at least initially, concerned with the scientific aspects of it.
Both poets seem very interested in the permanence of the star, using words like “steadfast” to display the simple continuity of the star. In the end of both poems, the stars eternality is what is taken away as important. Although their reasons for admiring the continuity of a star differ, both appreciated how…show more content… However, he is presented with a paradox. Although the star never dies, it is “ …In lone splendour hung aloft the night,” which would make it impossible for Keats to be a star and be with his lover. His poem is punctuated as a single sentence, making it seem as though he has a lot to say without much time, which indicates that he realizes the impossibility of his hopes for eternal life. Another reference to the speed at which human life is lived is the use of the word “ripe,” which has connotations of something perishable. His use of words such as soft, pillow’d, swoon, and breast make the poem sensual. His use of words such as Eremite, ablution, and priestlike make the poem religious. Today it would be unusual for a poet to write about the two in one poem, but in 1819 when the poem was written, the two often went hand in
