Bright Star

Bright Star
John Keats

The writer uses an apostrophe when the speaker addresses the star. The speaker addresses the star while admiring it for being steadfast. The star can see much of the world at once, but it is alone. "Lone splendor...Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite" (Keats). Although the speaker wants to be steadfast, the speaker does not want to emulate the star by being distant and alone. The speaker is in love and wishes to be with his lover for eternity. "To feel forever its soft fall and swell" (Keats). Seeing the beauty of the world seems insignificant to the speaker because he is in love. His alternative to spending his life with his lover would be his death. "Still to hear her tender-taken breath, And so live ever- or else swoon to death" (Keats).
The use of an apostrophe allows for the speaker's comparison to the star, and it allows the speaker to show his yearning to spend eternity with his love just as the star is eternally in the sky.