Looking at the Stars Forever (John Keats) (Critical Essay‪)‬

IN KEATS'S HYPERION (1818), THERE IS ONE PASSAGE IN WHICH LOOKING AT a scene is portrayed in a curiously neutral way, remarked upon but seemingly to no end: Part of the sense of neutrality comes from Keats's avoidance of the word "eyes": verbally, there is no commitment to what's under Hyperion's eyelids. By implying that Hyperion's main action is to open his eyelids, Keats seems to reduce looking to opening up. The scene is also introduced, but not quite flamed, by "the voice / Of Coelus, from the universal space" (1:306-7), which begins to sound before Hyperion arises and goes on "until it ceas[es]" and Hyperion continues to look in silence. Hyperion cannot quite be said to be looking at what he is listening to, since even though Coelus is the sky god and the stars are part of the sky, it is not the stars that are speaking. The voice is "from" rather than "of" even "the universal space" that is itself not quite the same as the stars (the difference between the sky god and the sky does not close). By his own description Coelus is "but a voice" (1:340)--a voice alone. It is as though Hyperion were "listening" to an aural hallucination, a sound unconnected to any physical support. (2) So, why does he stand and look at the stars as though in response to the voice? If we assume he does this just because looking at something associated with Coelus is as close as he can come to seeing Coelus--as we might look at an album cover while listening to a song--then why does he continue gazing at the stars even after the voice stops? And when we are told that the stars "were the same," why is this supposed to be news? Does it imply that Hyperion was watching for change?