When I Have Fears That Cease To Be

Poetry of John Keats (1795-1821)

"When I have Fears that I may Cease to Be"

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a 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 thee 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.

John Keats writes about his fears of dying before hes able to write everything on his mind. He is afraid he will die before has written full and beautiful poetry in piles and piles of his own books. It seems he is afraid of dying only because he will never be able to write again and also he will lose love and fame resulting in loneliness. I think John Keats writes about the subject because he was going through a rough time in his life and he was getting very sick. The tone of this poem is very dark and lonesome proving that the author himself was going through a rough time in his life.