❝Bright star, would I were stedfast 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
──────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹──────
I love Keats' work. He is one of my favourite Romantic poets, and so to watch this film and know how it ends from the very beginning is heartbreaking. This film encapsulates pure, true love; love snatched away just as it fully blossoms; a lifetime of pining for that feeling of first love. Every small touch and minute expression between Fanny and John is ripe with unadulterated devotion and affection.
'Write the softest words and kiss them that I may at least touch my lips where yours have been.' I can't even begin to imagine what it must feel like to be so in love that you want to kill yourself in their absence, and each letter from them instantly makes you feel more alive. This is a beautiful film, from the cinematography to the soundtrack, and it's made even more beautiful to know that Ben Whishaw met his partner on set. Gorgeously done, Jane Campion.
❝Bright star, would I were stedfast 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
──────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹──────
I love Keats' work. He is one of my favourite Romantic poets, and so to watch this film and know how it ends from the very beginning is heartbreaking. This film encapsulates pure, true love; love snatched away just as it fully blossoms; a lifetime of pining for that feeling of first love. Every small touch and minute expression between Fanny and John is ripe with unadulterated devotion and affection.
'Write the softest words and kiss them that I may at least touch my lips where yours have been.' I can't even begin to imagine what it must feel like to be so in love that you want to kill yourself in their absence, and each letter from them instantly makes you feel more alive. This is a beautiful film, from the cinematography to the soundtrack, and it's made even more beautiful to know that Ben Whishaw met his partner on set. Gorgeously done, Jane Campion.
