John Keats (1795 - 1821)
In this sonnet written three years before his untimely death, Keats
worries for his life's achievement and his life's love and finds a
stoical means of reconciliation.
When I have fears
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 feel 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.
