When I have fears that I may cease to be
(By: John Keats 1818)
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starred face,
Huge cloudy symbols of high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon the more,
Never have relish in the fairy power
Of unreflecting love; then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.
In the sonnet When I have fears that I may cease to beJohn Keats expresses his feelings about his disease, Tuberculosis, and the fears of dieing that overwhelms him.
Portrait of John Keats by his friend Charles Brown...
John Keats, Portrait by William Hilton, after Jose...
John Keats, Portrait by Charles Brown, 1819.In this sonnet, there are autobiographical overtones. Keats expresses his true feelings through his poetry.
Keats is from the Romantic school of thought. The Romantic school of thought came about in the 18th & 19th centuries in England. The artists were idealistic, imaginative, and visionary.
Upon your first reading of the poem, you may detect a sense of regret. The overall mood of the poem is indeed of dissatisfaction and regret. The tone of this particular poem is quite pensive. He is in deep thought about the feelings he will never be allowed to express, the many poems he will never have the pleasure to write.
The imagery in this poem is in accordance to the usual styling of Keats. He is described as being Hellenic or intuitively appreciative of natural phenomenon. One example of this is the stanza "Hold like rich garners the full ripened...