"Bright Star" by John Keats and "Choose Something Like a Star" by Robert Frost both present to the reader a desire to be like the "steadfast" star. Both poets gaze for this same quality in the stars, but thematically and stylistically each poem has its similarities and differences.

The themes evident in "Bright Star" and "Choose Something Like a Star" are similar, but do have subtle differences. A theme shared between the two is man's wish for eternalness. The first fifteen lines of "Choose Something Like a Star" ask for the secret of "steadfastness," and the first line of "Bright Star" says, "would I were steadfast as thou art." The speaker of each poem wants to be able to identify with the star and its quality of persistence. This same theme the two poems share also has faint differences. The speaker of "Choose Something Like a Star" does...