When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be By John Keats

The similarities between the poems lie in their abilities to utilize imagery as a means to enhance the concept of the fleeting nature that life ultimately has and to also help further elaborate the speaker’s opinion towards their own situation. In Keats’ poem, dark and imaginative images are used to help match with the speaker’s belief that both love and death arise from fate itself. Here, Keats describes the beauty and mystery of love with images of “shadows” and “huge cloudy symbols of a high romance” to illustrate his belief that love comes from fate, and that he is sad to miss out on such an opportunity when it comes time for his own death.

Poetry is not just words formed into a line and a stanza; each poem is an opportunity to “dance” with the poet to his or her significant song. “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins is a reflection on how readers should read poetry. This poem is about how readers should take the time to understand and explore poetry. In addition, Billy Collins, also, states that readers should not torture poems and ignore the significance each stanza represents, but dissect, enjoy, and appreciate the journey they will take while reading poetry. “Introduction to Poetry” is a guide to readers in how to take more time enjoying poetry and learning to understand the experiences poems portray.

In the first stanza, the speaker makes it clear that he cares deeply for poetry. In my minds theater I see a seasoned married couple with a long time friend pondering an always present life challenge. What is this life challenge? First the speaker points it out by talking about poetry and its challenges and lack of appreciation. Then the friend of his lover continues his point by speaking about physical beauty and the challenges thereof “we must labour to be beautiful”. Yeats continues to build on his meaning of the poem with a reference from a story in Genesis, the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Edom. “It’s certain there is no fine thing since Adam’s fall but needs much laboring”. The point the speaker is making is true still today, one hundred years after this poem was written.

In the poem, When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be, by John Keats, he describes what he wants to do before he dies. John Keats died young from tuberculosis and was not very popular in society. He wrote a message on his own tombstone, which read “Here lies one whose name was writ in water”. It wouldn’t be until hundreds of years later that he would be recognized as one of the greats. After considering Keats’ poem, When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be, I have three things that I would like to accomplish before my time is up which are having a family, taking my dad on a hunt, and traveling all over the world.

As seen throughout the Romantic Period, proper description and visualization of setting served as crucial to the overall feel and overtone for a poem. Keats’ masterful composition of “Bright Star” exemplifies his vivid imagery as a star is described to hang lonely in the night and personified as forever awake with “eternal lids apart”. He dreams of lying on his “fair love’s ripening breast... to hear her tender-taken breath.” Keats’ imagery serves to stir emotion within the reader and relate intangible concepts to those that can be related. His depictions of severe circumstances are filled with

Poetry has a role in society, not only to serve as part of the aesthetics or of the arts. It also gives us a view of what the society is in the context of when it was written and what the author is trying to express through words. The words as a tool in poetry may seem ordinary when used in ordinary circumstance. Yet, these words can hold more emotion and thought, however brief it was presented.

In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by

For as long as it can be remembered people have used multiple forms of literature in order to gain knowledge, entertain, and even express a certain idea. Poetry is in fact one of those forms of literature, and before people began to write it, it was known to be told verbally by many. A person would tell a tale and those who listened would memorize it, what eventually caused poetry to spread around. Still to this day, many come to fall in love with the magic poetry possesses. It is the writer’s decision to either have a specific rhythm to it or just have a simple list of words. This essay argues that poetry is a creative way of expressing one's emotions and that it should be, not only preserved, but celebrated, even by those who have not considered themselves poetry fans in the past.

People are apt to learn new information, but it takes time, practice, and a good teacher, in order to do it correctly and to retain understanding. This poem shows the author’s (a teacher’s) frustration towards the elementary mistake that inexperienced readers or students make when poetry is first introduced. Unable to read the poem properly, they often do not capture a poem’s natural beauty and truth. The author says to observe a poem to see its true colors or its natural state (590; lines 1-5). He wants readers to search the “surface of the poem” to see a glimpse of the deeper side of the poem— to see its meaning and understand (lines 9-11). However, the author simply sees people rushing

The line “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (Thomas 3/9/15/19) is repeated for four times throughout the poem. “The dying of light” refers to the blindness of the poet’s father. Nevertheless, Thomas begged his father to fight against the dying situation and tried to “rage” for a longer life. Even at the death’s door, people should not give up fighting. Instead of dying gracefully, Thomas urged people to do whatever they can to prolong their life and never stop struggling to live. This poem not only talks about the poet’s father, but also talks about all kinds of men. No matter you are “Wise men” (4), “Good men” (7), “Wild men” (10), or “Grave men” (13), you should never stop trying. They all should boldly resist their death, even if that means suffering and

In both openings, each poet recognizes the ephemeral element of life. Keats’ fears that he “may cease to be,” while Longfellow reflects, “half of life is gone” (Keats 1; Longfellow 1). Through diction, this trend becomes evident. For example, Keats uses the words, “Huge cloudy symbols,” and “shadows,” indicating almightiness and transcendence (Keats 6, 8). Longfellow too recognizes nature’s power, going even further, capitalizing the words “Past” and “Death” (Longfellow 9, 14). Such capitalization is done out of respect for the power of these words, and further, as a reiteration that the present is determined by the past and the future. In effect, Longfellow realizes that the present is the morphed version of the past and the future, and thus gives no capitalization, or significance, to it. Keats experiences the opposite. He very much endorses the attitude of carpe diem, trying to move on from the past only to be greeted by the grim face of death. By the end of the poem, each poet describes similar circumstances. Keats approaches a shore, while Longfellow ascends a hill to contemplate life. They differ, however, as Keats views a “wide world” replete with literary repute and love, but realizes it is “nothingness” in the bigger picture (Keats 13-14). Thus, he pursues what remains of his opportunities, despite knowing his human insignificance. Conversely, Longfellow sees the “gleaming lights” of an idyllic past with a waterfall of death that will haunt him now and what remains of his future (Longfellow

poem is not merely a static, decorative creation, but that it is an act of communication between the poet and

In the second stanza, the speaker beholds a piper joyfully playing under the tress for his lover to find him with song. “Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared. The use of imagery of the senses is effective here. For I consider poetry to be more musical in nature than literary text. The speaker claims to be hearing melodies emanating from the urn, which for me the sound transmission from the urn correlates to the finite aspects of fleeting love. While the nature of art of the urn seems to me to represent the exquisiteness and infinity of the universe. Indeed, the sounds of silence from art is akin to vastness of space and time. “She cannot fade, though, thou hast not thy bliss,” (line19). Keats is asking the readers to not grieve for him. Because, her beauty will not diminish over time it is everlasting.

Keats is obsessed with beauty in his poetry. Keats always creates a a beautiful object out of some mundane and poor existence. Most notably, in “Isabella, or Pot of Basil”, Isabella buries the head of her lost lover, Lorenzo, inside a pot of basil. Keats approaches beauty in a way fundamentally different from

John Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is written through the power of eternity, beauty and truth regardless of existence, as Wordsworth showed likewise. Keats illustrated his poem through love in its sublime. For example, in the first stanza he says, “What wild ecstasy?” (Keats 930). If ecstasy is a huge feeling of