John Keats (1795-1821)
Prolific English romantic poet & a qualified surgeon, John Keats was born in London in 1795 to a stable keeper who had married his master's daughter. Keats wrote poetry for about six years & was published for about four years during his short life. He moved to Rome, Italy after falling ill to (suspected) tuberculosis, which later became the cause of his demise at age 25.
When I have Fears is an Elizabethan sonnet with three quatrains & a couplet. John Keats wrote it in 1818 but it wasn't published until after Keats died. When I have Fears was published in 1848, 27 years after Keats' death.
Keats always had a fear that he would die at an early age, which may have been due to the fact that both his parents died at an early age (but that's just an assumption). When I have Fears is Keats admission of his fear of early death.
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high pilèd books, in Charact'ry,
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,
& think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
& 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, & think
Till Love & Fame to nothingness do sink.
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