Favorite Poem

Analysis and thoughts of John Keat's Sonnet "When I Have Fears That I Cease To Be."

I have a deep love for poetry. It is perhaps the only style of writing that shows your true inner self, your secrets, and hidden thoughts. In order to write a successful piece, it must bare all. I am constantly on the hunt to find the next poem that will make me feel things I have never felt before. Ever since I discovered the poet John Keats, about a month ago, his poems seem to have a permanent lodging in my mind. There's one poem in particular that calls out to me above all, and that is When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be.

John Keats was an Elizabethan Romantic poet, born in 1795. He was born the eldest of four children; George, Fanny, and Thomas. Their parents Frances Jennings and Thomas Keats died before their children were grown. Thomas of a horseback riding incident and Frances of tuberculosis. A sickness that would later take their son Thomas’s life and soon after, John’s. John cared for and nursed both his mother and brother till their last days. Before pursuing the life of a poet Keats studied to be a physician, it is said that during lectures he would be found writing poetry. His poetry often pulls from Greek mythology, love, and life- specifically what comes after; and is heavily influenced by Shakespeare's style of writing, whom he had a great appreciation for. This leads me back to my topic at hand…

When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be is about a man’s fear of death. The fear that death will rob him of the ability to complete his aspirations and live out his desires. A fear that mankind has been plagued with since the dawn of time. It is clear that the speaker carries their self-worth in their creative accomplishments. In my opinion, it is safe to say that Keats himself is the speaker of this sonnet. He was familiar with death and perhaps knew his time was near. He wrote this piece at the age of 23, and died at 25. 

Keats centers his sonnet around the fear of not literally dying but rather what comes after death. The vast nothingness, where pens do not glean our brains, where our eyes are no longer blessed with the faces of our loved ones. The sonnet immediately starts strong with “When I have fears that I may cease to be”(1). This first line hooks the reader, with the speaker’s omission. Keats continues the piece by sharing his fear through relative imagery. He goes on to say “Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain. Before high piled books, in charact’ry, Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain;”(2-4). These lines are revealing that the speaker is a writer, and therefore relates to both writers and readers. For who else would better know the pains of not documenting their ideas and characters before they slip from their minds. 

As stated above Keats starts off very strong with his opening line. Though it is a strong line it is of a quiet nature. The opening line does not overpower the rest of the piece but rather helps build its emotion. The first line can be read as a whisper, a secret that has been quietly stated. The sonnet's profundity builds with its images. After lines 2-4, Keats transitions his imagery to nature. “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;”(5-8).  In these lines Keats is pulling from nature. He wants us, as the readers, to reminisce and envision the beauty of the night’s sky where stars freckle throughout, he wants us to think about having the need to record its vast beauty and being abruptly stopped. How would that feel? In Keats’s sonnet it is the “magic hand of chance” that prevents the task. The “magic hand of chance” is time. Lines 5-8 shows that the speaker fears that time will take away his ability to reveal the beauty of his creation to the world and perhaps rob him of the ability to become one of the “greats” himself. These lines uncover that the speaker feels that this aspect, time, makes him feel out of control. Chance and time cannot be controlled by man- therefore they know they are living on borrowed time. Line 6 “Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,” is an introduction to the romance that will be disclosed in lines 9-12. 

The romance: “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”(9-12). It is here at the beginning of line 9 where the volta starts. Keats’s core meaning remains the same but his mood shifts. He used the importance of work, the beauty of nature, and now has transitioned to love to convey his eternal pain that this fear plagues him with. The feeling of being forcefully parted, whether that be by the hand of God or not, from a loved one is the most painful emotion a person or animal deals with on this earth. The speaker is afraid that he will no longer have the opportunity to spend his time with the “fair creature.” Lines 10-11 “ That I shall never look upon thee more, Never have relish in the faery power Of unreflecting love!” suggests that the “fair creature” may actually be someone whom they wish to meet. The prospect of meeting an individual whom you can get lost in their “faery power” that is unyielding love. I believe Keats is discussing the prospect of love rather than the specific lover themselves. The phrase  “fair creature of an hour!” specifically “of an hour” suggests that it is of the moment or maybe of “that” moment. He stays away from claiming the “creature” for his own but rather just declares a term of endearment. Lines 11-12 “Never have relish in the faery power Of unreflecting love!” suggests that the speaker has never and fears that they will never get the opportunity to feel the all consuming sensation of love. 

The sonnet ends with “Of the wide world I stand alone, and think Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.” (13-14). It is important to point out that the poem ends without metaphor or imagery. Keats uses robust language throughout the sonnet and chooses to end it quite abruptly. Depicting the abruptness of time. “Of the wide world I stand alone” It is here where Keats tells the reader we truly walk alone in life, followed by “and think Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.” Without love and the remembrance of who we were and what we did- what do we become, but forgotten.

When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be is a sonnet that instantly spoke to me. I felt this poem as if it came from my own soul. When you are young you are often fearless. It is a fearlessness derived from lack of understanding and experience. It is a bold and freeing feeling but it is temporary. When a person is exposed to hardship, suffering, and loss. These unsettling fears become more and more present, causing a person to have to adapt and learn to coexist with such fears. Being (newly) twenty-six years old I am understanding this concept more and more. Fearlessness is a beautiful quality but not always practical. It is wisdom that we must seek as we age. Keats at the time of writing this piece most likely knew of his condition and knew the fact that he truly was living off of borrowed time. The beauty in this poetic piece is its vulnerability which correlates with Keats’s lived experience. I will forever keep this poem filed in the archives in my mind and pull it out whenever I need inspiration to give life my all.

“When I have fears that I may cease to be”... before my time has come, I think of how I will be remembered. If I would be remembered at all.

Well done, Keats!