Midterm Essay 1 - Romantic Poetry

In “Bright Star, Would I were Steadfast as Thou Art,” John Keats addresses the star about how he is envious of its persistence. He discusses what he would do if he had this star-like quality, explaining that he would spend the time with his lover. This is an aspect often used in Romantic poetry, as it creates a connection between an object and a part of nature. Similarly, in Sir Philip Sidney’s “Sonnet 31,” the speaker has a conversation with the moon about his lover. The unification of the speakers’ lovers with nature helps to set forth a greater meaning to each by showing the intangibility of the lovers while also enforcing the passion that the speakers have for nature, both themes commonly used in Romantic poetry.
In both poems, the lovers do not seem to be immediately available to their respective admirers. Keats tells that the speaker wishes he could be “gazing on the new soft-fallen mask/ of snow upon the mountains and the moors (L7-8),” which is comparable to laying “pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast, to feel for ever its soft fall and swell (L10-11).” Here, he compares all that the star sees from the sky to what he wishes he could interminably see in respect to his lover. This yearning for the vision of his lover can be compared to the desire that the speaker in Sidney’s “Sonnet 31” feels when discussing the unavailability of the women that he desires. This may be explained by Sidney’s inability to marry the woman that he loved because of her father’s early death. The speaker tells the moon that he knows the moon understands what it is like to see with “love-with-love-acquainted eyes/ can judge of love, thou feel’st a lover’s case (L5-6).” Here, the speaker addresses that he lacks the lover that he so desires, just as the moon does.
The speakers in each of the poems conclude with absolute notions. In “Bright Star, Would I were Steadfast as Thou Art,” the speaker admits that if cannot “hear her tender-taken breath (L13),” and liver forever doing so, he would rather die. The speaker in “Sonnet 31” scorns his lover for her ungratefulness. Neither poem ends with the beloved finally in the realm of their lover, displaying a common theme of Romantic poetry – unrequited love.