Keats: Bright Star

Although not a fan of romance type movies, I did enjoy watching Bright Star, admittedly the fascination had a lot to do with John Keats. I’ve been a fan of his since I read a book of poetry (I believe it was titled) Keats and Shelly (cover to cover) at eight years of age.

My father collected old books, and had an outstanding collection of books from the 1800s, and earlier, amongst those books was poetry by John Keats. I inherited an old copy of Shakespeare’s works (from my dad) , that even includes Shakespeare’s will — but that’s another story.

Also I was blown away by the costuming in the film. I’ve done my share of clothing design, and was especially impressed by the crochet designs of Sophie Digard, so beautiful!

John Keats was young when he passed away — twenty five if I remember correctly (from tuberculosis) a death sentence in those times. The movie largely focuses on the romance between him and Fanny Brawne. It’s a beautiful tale of romance, and I enjoyed it immensely.

But please know this Mr. Keats… in your correspondence with Fanny Brawne, when you wrote…

“I almost wish we were butterflies and liv’d but three summer days – three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.”

Sorry babe that sounds like a cop-out to me, plan to spend the rest of your life ‘filling me with delights’. Three days, please you must be joking! You’d be getting off way too easily!  I don’t think so! 😉

Happy Valentines Day!