Poetry-in-Motion 3

 Still on the subject of sonnets, this one from a young John Keats, who was an apprentice surgeon first, and poet second, is superb. Had he lived beyond his 25 years he would have done so much more, but even so, was a major influence on poets to follow including the iconic Alfred Lord Tennyson

Bright Star

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

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 stedfast, still unchangeable,

Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,

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

                                                    John Keats