Bright Star: John Keats

{This painting by Frank Cadogan Cowper is based on the poem La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats}

My excitement about the upcoming film Bright Star is twofold: first, it was directed by Jane Campion, who is arguably one of the most talented filmmakers of our time {her other films -- The Piano, Portrait of a Lady -- are some of my favorites}; also, it is about the life and love of poet John Keats...who I have to blame/thank for my terrible romantic streak.


I discovered my love for poetry -- and for Keats -- when I was around twelve years old. As a gift, I received a copy of Penhaligon's beautifully-scented Language of Flowers book, which was filled with late Romantic and early Victorian poetry. I spent an unhealthy amount of time reading, memorizing {and sniffing!} that treasured little volume. The Keats poems were always my favorites -- they seemed to perfectly resonate with my vague, incomprehensible girlish longings {probably hormones in retrospect}. Some of my favorite Keats poems included: "Ode to a Nightingale," "La Belle Dame Sans Merci," and "When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be." I love his poems because they teeter on the edge between despondent and utterly transcendent.


If you haven't read him in a while, or if you've never had the pleasure of reading him, he's worth falling in love with. You can find his collected works online here. I'll leave you with another favorite...any ideas on the strange final line?

"Modern Love"

AND what is love? It is a doll dress'd up
For idleness to cosset, nurse, and dandle;
A thing of soft misnomers, so divine
That silly youth doth think to make itself
Divine by loving, and so goes on
Yawning and doting a whole summer long,
Till Miss's comb is made a pearl tiara,
And common Wellingtons turn Romeo boots;
Then Cleopatra lives at number seven,
And Antony resides in Brunswick Square.
Fools! if some passions high have warm'd the world,
If Queens and Soldiers have play'd deep for hearts,
It is no reason why such agonies
Should be more common than the growth of weeds.
Fools! make me whole again that weighty pearl
The Queen of Egypt melted, and I'll say
That ye may love in spite of beaver hats.