In what way has your appreciation for a pair of texts been enhanced by your understanding of the

textual conversations between them?

Our appreciation for the concerns of love and mortality from John Keats’ poems are enhanced by an
understanding of Jane Campion’s film Bright Star which explores the context and inspirations within Keats’ life.
Influenced by the Romanticist focus on intense human emotions, Keats illustrates through La Belle Dame
Sans Merci the dangers of excessive love upon one’s vitality and how a pantheistic connection to nature helps
sustain a renewed appreciation for the impermanence of life in To Autumn. Inspired by the rise of secular
postmodernism, Campion’s Bright Star recontextualises Keats’ life from the perspective of Fanny Brawne
which builds upon Keats’ poems by showing how a powerful love can overcome obstacles and how concerns
of mortality can also be overcome by connections to other individuals. Thus, through Campion’s exploration of
Keats’ backstory from another perspective, our understanding of Keats’ inspirations and the messages within
his poems are enhanced.

Keats’ La Belle cautions readers of the misery induced by obsessive desires for romance by provocatively
representing how it deprives individuals of their vitality and detaches them from reality. Influenced by the
Romanticist focus on intense subjective emotions, Keats adopts a cyclical structure within the poem to warn
against the perpetual suffering caused by obsessive love, which is symbolised by the titular femme fatale.
1. Keats illustrates the seductive lure of love through the accumulation of “She found me roots of relish
sweet, and honey wild, and manna dew”, incorporating the gustatory imagery of sweetness to
accentuate the intoxicating effect of the Lady on the Knight.
2. Keats accordingly reveals through the juxtaposition of emotive language and mythical imagery in
“she took me to her Elfin grot… and there she lulled me to sleep” to underscore the deceiving and
hypnotic inhumanity of the lady, revealing how exotic romance threatens one’s vitality and disconnects
them from reality.
3. Keats concludes the ballad with the repetition of the confronting imagery of “alone and palely loitering”
from the first stanza depicting the knight drained of vitality to suggest the cyclical nature of the Knight’s
experience which will continue to affect individuals forever.
Thus, Keats warns readers of the suffering induced by obsessive love by representing the decline in the
knight’s vitality.

Our appreciation for Keats’ provocative message about love is enhanced by Campion revealing Keats’
personal experiences through the eyes of Fanny Brawne, illustrating how love empowers individuals to
overcome adversity despite the pain and suffering it brings. Influenced by the rise of third-wave feminism,
Campion illustrates the story of Keats’ and Fanny’s love, constructing the walls and windows throughout the
film as symbols of socio-economic barriers which inhibit but are ultimately unable to prevent the romance
between Fanny and Keats.
1. Campion recontextualises La Belle by illustrating love’s capacity to overcome barriers through Fanny’s
defiant tone “you taught me how to love. You never said only the rich”, where her higher positioning
within the frame and stubborn rejection of her mother’s expectations represents the unwavering
convictions of love which enable her to reunite with Keats.
2. Campion contrasts the one-sided suffering in La Belle with the close up shot of Fanny and Keats’
intertwined fingers to illustrate how both individuals can derive emotional relief from loving relationships.
3. Furthermore, Campion’s film partially explains why Keats’ bleak view on love arises as she depicts
Fanny’s distress when confronted by the dead butterflies scattered across her room, which is both
symbolic of the transience of love and an allusion to the deathly imagery of La Belle, conveying the
futility of attaining perfect and eternal happiness within relationships.
In what way has your appreciation for a pair of texts been enhanced by your understanding of the
textual conversations between them?
In your response, make close reference to the prescribed texts you have studied in Module A.

Hence, our appreciation for Keats' warnings of the volatility of love and Campion’s views of the multifaceted
nature of love is enhanced by the understanding of the textual conversations between the two texts.

Furthermore, Keats’ ode To Autumn represents how a pantheistic connection with nature enables appreciation
of beauty within the ephemerality of life despite the inevitability of death. While Keats uses a tripartite
structure to mirror the passing of time and the invariability of mortality, he further personifies the season of
Autumn to subvert its traditional association with death and emphasise the intrinsic satisfaction that the beauty
of nature provides in accordance with Romantic tenets.
1. Keats uses the accumulation of visual and gustatory imagery in “bend with apples… fill all fruits
with ripeness to the core… plump the hazel shells with a sweet kernel” to hyperbolically emphasise
the bounty and fertility of the season, creating a lively atmosphere and depiction of Autumn.
2. He contrasts the lively tone of the first stanza to the drowsy mood created by the olfactory and
natural imagery of “Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind… drows’d with the fume of poppies” to
convey the tranquility achieved through a close connection to nature despite Autumn’s deathly
association.
3. Finally, Keats addresses the concern of mortality by illustrating that acceptance of the ephemerality of
human life can be achieved by appreciating the beauty in the natural world, using the symbolism of
“gathering swallows twitter in the skies” to accentuate the continuity of life and the natural cycle itself.
Thus, Keats emphasises the importance for a pantheistic understanding of nature’s beauty enabling
individuals to accept the impermanence of existence.

Our appreciation for Keats’ views on mortality in To Autumn is enhanced by Campion’s exploration of Keats’
experiences with death in his relationship with Fanny which enables him to overcome grief. Shaped by her
secular context, Campion adds value to Keat’s message by emphasising the value of intimate connections
between individuals in addition to Keats' advocacy for spiritual transcendence in assisting individuals to
overcome concerns of mortality, composing the film from Fanny’s perspective as opposed to the singular
poetic voice of To Autumn.
1. The cut towards Fanny’s tearing of fabric represents how she shares the grief of Keats as he confronts
his brother’s death to establish how relationships provide comfort and solace for those facing the loss of
loved ones as demonstrated in To Autumn.
1. Also, the extreme closeup shot of Fanny’s pillow slip depicting an embroidered tree, symbolic of the
rehabilitative effects of nature and life itself, accentuates the meaning of her consolation and the worth
of relationships, with Keats’ profound appreciation communicated by his repeated kisses of the slip and
his prolonged eye contact and gaze at Fanny in which Campion adds meaning by illustrating an
aspect of Keats’ life missing in his poems.
2. Finally, when Fanny recites Bright Star after Keats’ death, Campion illustrates through the low-angle
tracking shot of Fanny walking through the forest, aligning with the upwards vector of the poem, that
through love, Keats’ artistic voice is able to transcend his death.
Thus, by recontextualising the portrayal of mortality in To Autumn, Campion enhances our understanding of
the two texts by illustrating the power of relationships to overcome concerns of mortality.