John Keats (1795-1821)
When I have Fears that I may Cease to Be
1When I have fears that I may cease to be
2 Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
3Before high-piled books, in charactery,
4 Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
5When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
6 Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
7And think that I may never live to trace
8 Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
9And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
10 That I shall never look upon thee more,
11Never have relish in the faery power
12 Of unreflecting love;--then on the shore
13Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
14Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.
Notes
1] Sent to Reynolds in a letter dated January 31, 1818.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Richard Monckton Milnes, Life, Letters and Literary Remains of John Keats (New York: Putnam, 1848). PR 4836 A4 1848 ROBA
First publication date:
1848
RPO poem editor: J. R. MacGillivray
RP edition: 3RP 2.622.
Recent editing: 4:2001/12/28
Composition date:
January
1818
Composition date note: January 31, 1818
Form: English Sonnet
Rhyme: ababcdcdefefgg
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