John Keats
Ms. Harper
When I Have Fears that I may Cease to Be by
John Keats
WHEN I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high pil`d 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,
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.
Formalist Criticism
In John Keat’s poem “When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be,” the
speaker has a melancholy tone as he states all the things he will miss
when he dies, especially his love. The structure of the poem lends itself
to this theme with its consistent rhyme scheme of a-b-a-b-c-d-c-d-e-f-e-fg-g and lines of iambic pentameter, making it a Shakespearean sonnet.
This format is typically associated with love because the rhythm of the
iam replicates the beating of a heart. This theme of the importance of
love is further emphasized by such lines as “When I have fears that I
may cease to be…/that I shall never look upon thee more/Never have
the relish in the fairy power/Of unreflecting love” (1, 10-12).
Furthermore, he heightens the romantic effect by personifying the thing
he will miss. For example, “When I behold, upon the night’s starred face/
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance” (5,6).
On Seeing the Elgin Marbles
My spirit is too weak—mortality
Weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep,
And each imagined pinnacle and steep
Of godlike hardship tells me I must die
Like a sick eagle looking at the sky.
Yet ’tis a gentle luxury to weep
That I have not the cloudy winds to keep
Fresh for the opening of the morning’s eye.
Such dim-conceived glories of the brain
Bring round the heart an undescribable feud;
So do these wonders a most dizzy pain,
That mingles Grecian grandeur with the rude
Wasting of old time—with a billowy main—
A sun—a shadow of a magnitude.
Formalist Criticism
In this poem, the speaker also has a melancholy tone as he
contemplates the immortality of the Greek statues he is
admiring. He uses a simile to describe his emotions about
dying, “Of godlike hardship tells me I must die/like a sick
eagle looking at the sky” (4-5). As he marvels at the
longevity of the statues, he concludes that although they
appear mortal, they have lost their strength, “That
mingles Grecian grandeur with the rude wasting of old
time…” (12-13)
Moralistic Criticism
The theme of vanity is also pervasive in both poems. In
“When I have fears…: Keats eschews material possessions
and pride as he exalts the power of love. He catalogs a list
of the trivial in his life, including his own poetry: “Before
high-pilèd books, in charactery,/Hold like rich garners the
full ripened grain;” (3-4). After he examines all of these
useless things, he comes to the conclusion that the only
thing he will miss is his true love’s face as stated, “That I
shall never look upon thee more,/Never have relish in the
fairy power/…Till love and fame to nothingness do sink”
(10-14). Furthermore in “On Seeing…” Keats
acknowledges that even the beautiful marble statues have
suffered over time.
Biographical/Historical Criticism
John Keats had many tragedies in his life. When Keats
was eight, he lost his father to a tragic horse accident that
caused him to fracture his skull. Furthermore, when Keats
was fourteen, his mother died of tuberculosis. Later in his
life, Keats suffered with the same disease and, after a long
battle, he succumbed to the disease at the age of twentysix. As stated in the article “John Keats,” The first months of
1821 marked a slow and steady decline into the final stage
of tuberculosis. Keats was coughing up blood and covered
in sweat.” This preoccupation with death is evidenced in
“When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be” and “On
seeing the Elgin Marbles” as he ponders what he finds truly
important in life.
Works Cited
“John Keats.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Web. 1 September 2014.
Keats, John. “On Seeing the Elgin
Marbles.” Poetry Foundation.org. Web. 1 September
2014.
Keats, John. “When I Have Fears that I may Cease to Be.”
Poetry Foundation.org. Web. 1 September 2014.
Citing a song from an album
Foo Fighters. In Your Honor. RCA, 2005.
CD.
Nirvana. "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
Nevermind. Geffen, 1991. Audiocassette.