When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be

Context

• Written in January 1818, during a time of personal reflection and anxiety for Keats.
• Keats was nursing his brother Tom, who was dying of tuberculosis, and grappling with his fears of mortality and unfulfilled potential.
• Reflects his preoccupation with the brevity of life and the desire to leave a lasting impact through his poetry.
• The poem captures Keats' Romantic concerns with transience, beauty, and the quest for immortality through art.

Structure and Form

• Shakespearean Sonnet.
  • Shakespearean sonnets were usually about love and hope, Keats contrasts this image with a sombre, pessimistic sonnet.
• Rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.
• Written in iambic pentameter.
• The three quatrains develop the poet's fears and aspirations, culminating in a poignant final couplet.
• The controlled structure contrasts with the turbulent emotions expressed in the poem.

Key Themes

Mortality and Legacy

• "When I have fears that I may cease to be / Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,"
• Expresses Keats' fear of dying before he has fully expressed his creative potential. Highlights the anxiety about leaving a lasting legacy through his poetry.

Nature

• "When I behold, upon the night's starred face, / Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,"
• Uses natural imagery to convey the awe-inspiring and sublime aspects of the world.
• Reflects the Romantic fascination with the grandeur and mystery of nature.

Love

• "And when I feel, fair creature of an hour, / That I shall never look upon thee more,"
• This reflects Keats' sorrow at the prospect of never experiencing the fullness of love.
• Suggests the fleeting nature of beauty and romantic relationships.

Isolation

• "Then on the shore / Of the wide world I stand alone, and think"
• Conveys a sense of profound isolation as Keats contemplates his place in the world.
• Emphasizes the loneliness of confronting one's mortality and the existential nature of his reflections.

Transience

• "Till love and fame to nothingness do sink."
• Highlights the ultimate futility of earthly pursuits and the transient nature of human achievements.
• Reflects Keats' awareness of the impermanence of life and the inevitable decay of all things.

Similar Poems

• "To Autumn": Explores themes of nature, transience, and the passage of time with a reflective and melancholic tone.
• "Ode to a Nightingale": Shares themes of transience, beauty, and the desire to escape from the harsh realities of life through art and imagination.
• "Bright Star! Would I were steadfast as thou art": Reflects Keats' longing for constancy and immortality in contrast to the fleeting nature of human life and emotions.

Line by Line Analysis

When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain, Before high-pilèd books, in charactery, Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain; When I behold, upon the night's starred 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 faery 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.

"When I have fears that I may cease to be"

• "When" is a definitive adjective, that creates suspense.
• Begins with an expression of Keats' fear of death and the impermanence of life.
• Sets the tone of anxiety and contemplation that pervades the poem.

"Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,"

• Uses the metaphor of harvesting to describe the process of capturing his creative thoughts through writing.
  • "gleaned" connotes a pastoral, fertility and autumnal theme.
• "Teeming brain" suggests a wealth of ideas and potential yet to be realized.
• Death in infamy that worries Keats the most.

"Before high-pilèd books, in charactery,"

• "High-pilèd books" symbolize the accumulation of knowledge and written works.
• "Charactery" refers to the letters and words that constitute these books, emphasizing the importance of writing.

"Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain;"

• Continues the harvest metaphor, comparing books to garners (granaries) holding the fruits of his intellectual labor.
• Contrasting the happiness of greatness with the fear of death.
• "Full ripened grain" symbolizes mature, fully developed ideas.
• The assonance of repeated 'e' sounds in the first quatrain suggests a queasy and sad tone.

"When I behold, upon the night's starred face,"

• Cyclical structure of the quatrains beginning with "When I".
• Uses imagery of the night sky to evoke a sense of wonder and the vastness of the universe.
• "Starred face" personifies the sky, adding a romantic and mystical quality.
  • The sky is immortal, as is nature. Personification contrasts the mortality between Keats and the immortality of nature.

"Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,"

• Synaesthesia of "Huge cloudy"
• Reflects the Romantic fascination with the sublime and the mysterious aspects of nature.

"And think that I may never live to trace / Their shadows with the magic hand of chance;"

• Expresses the fear of never being able to explore and capture these grand ideas in his writing.
• "shadows" could refer to Keats barely reaching success with his poems.
• "Magic hand of chance" suggests the unpredictable and inspirational nature of creativity.

"And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,"

• Addresses a beloved person, emphasizing their transient nature with "creature of an hour."
  • Keats still turns to love, even that which is not immortal.
• Reflects the fleeting beauty and temporality of human relationships.

"That I shall never look upon thee more,"

• Expresses the sorrow of potentially losing the opportunity to see and experience the beloved's presence again.
• Highlights the theme of unfulfilled love and the impermanence of beauty.

"Never have relish in the faery power / Of unreflecting love—"

• The repetition of "never" in this line and the previous line emphasises Keats' fears about experience and legacy.
• "Faery power" refers to the enchanting and magical quality of love.
• "Unreflecting love" suggests pure, instinctual love unclouded by doubt or rational thought.
• Caesura at the end of the line which transitions into the volta of the poem.

"Then on the shore / Of the wide world I stand alone, and think"

• "When I" changes into "Then" thus demonstrating the volta of the sonnet.
  • Keats has given in to the idea of his future despite his inevitable mortality.
• Conveys a sense of isolation as Keats contemplates his place in the vast, indifferent world.
• "Shore of the wide world" evokes an image of standing at the edge, facing the unknown.
  • Suggests ideas of the cosmos, and Keats' fear of infamy in an ever-expanding world.

"Till love and fame to nothingness do sink."

• Concludes with the realization that love and fame are ultimately fleeting and insignificant in the face of mortality.
• "nothingness" could suggest nihilism or the release from pressure to create.
• Reflects Keats' awareness of the transient nature of human achievements and emotions.
• The sonnet ends on a tragic, prophetic note.
  • Negativity and a sense of loss although sad, are tempered by a mood of acceptance and resignation.