When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be, Summary of the Poem

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.

The study of any poem often begins with its imagery. Being the centralized idea behind the power of poetry, imagery isn’t always there to just give a mental picture when reading the poem, but has other purposes. Imagery can speak to the five senses using figurative language as well as help create a specific emotion that the author is trying to infuse within the poem. It helps convey a complete human experience a very minimal amount of words. In this group of poems the author uses imagery to show that humanity is characterized as lost, sorrowful and regretful, but nature is untainted by being free of mistakes and flaws and by taking time to take in its attributes it can help humans have a sense of peace, purity, and joy, as well as a sense of

The poem’s structure as a sonnet allows the speaker’s feelings of distrust and heartache to gradually manifest themselves as the poem’s plot progresses. Each quatrain develops and intensifies the speaker’s misery, giving the reader a deeper insight into his convoluted emotions. In the first quatrain, the speaker advises his former partner to not be surprised when she “see[s] him holding [his] louring head so low” (2). His refusal to look at her not only highlights his unhappiness but also establishes the gloomy tone of the poem. The speaker then uses the second and third quatrains to justify his remoteness; he explains how he feels betrayed by her and reveals how his distrust has led him

His love for poetry is one element of this poem which draws you in, and catches you in its warm enveloping glove. In some poems, one has to dig and pry to understand the meaning. This is not a poem of such nature. The interpretation begins when you sit back and enjoy the imagery. The poem begins and ends with a tranquil image of a conversation as the sun sets one summer evening. Later he paints a wonderful image with the moon rising, and sun setting, casting a “blue-green” hue across the quite reflecting sky.

The poem under study was written in 1818 after the completion of John Keats's 4,000-line poem

The poem was first published May 1819，the time which John Keats had been judged a lot. Even Percy Bysshe Shelley suspected Keats’ death had something to do with the harsh criticism. In 1818, a man called John Wilson Croker wrote a article, in which he accused Keats of using rhymes from working class speech. He also said Keats was unintelligible, rugged, diffuse, tiresome absurd and gratuitous nonsense. Therefore, it was a

John Keats’ poem, When I have fears that I may cease to be, is a well-known work that embodies many Romantic principles. The poem, explored in the context of Keats’ suffering from consumption, laments human impermanence while simultaneously exploring philosophical notions. Keats implements the use of the Shakespearean sonnet with each quatrain, beginning with the ambiguous, but time-bound word ‘when,’ manifesting these ideas in unique ways. When I have fears that I may cease to be uses the structure of the sonnet to delineate between the realms of reality and fantasy, while contributing to the overarching concept of eternity and ultimately reaches the conclusion that even lofty ideas that appear eternal ultimately erode.

Having said its convoluted attitude went towards desire. Rhyme is another poetic device that was mainly used in this poem. Rhyme is when the concluding sound of two or supplementary words sound alike/same. For every other stanza made in this reading it is a rhyme being used. About, in line 1-3 it was quoted “self- chosen snare” “dregs of scattered thought” then “cradle of causeless care.

In the lines “…that our youth seems / to pass before us / and we have grown / very / very / old/ by dusk”, we can see that their work has taken up most of the speakers life. They started when they were young, and before they knew it they were old and grown up. They spent their entire life working to survive and to make a better living for themselves, but instead were consumed by the work and never got a better life in return. We can see this in the lines that say “While the end / of each day only brings / a tired night / that waits for the sun / and the land that in return / waits for us…” because it suggests that their work is a never ending cycle. Another way that I interpreted the last two lines in the final stanza was that it said the land that they harvest is the land that is going to take them after they die. This goes back to the first poem “Today I’ll Sit Still”, by saying that even after a life full of hard work, the only thing you’ll get out of it is

“What do you want to do before you die?” It is a question asked in many situations; college interviews, when you discover a terminal illness, or even during a discussion in your English class. Usually it takes people a minute to think up their list of aspirations, though some can spurt out their compilation in a matter of seconds. It all depends on how much prior thought you’ve put into the topic. In my case, I’d never deeply considered what I’d like to accomplish before death until I read the poem “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be” by John Keats. After reading this poem and understanding what Keats was saying, I took some time to compose a checklist for things to do while I have the time to do them. Before I die, I want to graduate

Keats draws the reader into his fantasy settings and dreamlike state of desire. Keats was obsessed with blurring the boundaries of dreams versus reality and the consequences of those boundaries. This is seen more in this poem than any of his other works. It is not known why he had this obsession, but maybe the dream world allowed him to forget everyone he lost due to illness, or maybe prevented him from thinking about his own illness and future demise. While writing this poem, Keats knew he was ill, because of his previous medical experience, and because he lost his mother and brother to tuberculosis, so he knew the symptoms.

During the romanticism era, Line 1-8 talks about how Keats is afraid that he won’t be able to become a writer. The poem was written during Romanticism where a lung disease, tuberculosis was widespread over Europe. Even Keats mother died from this disease when Keats was a child. Because he grew up alone, he didn’t have anyone to tell about his feelings therefore he started writing poems to express his feelings. He was worried that he may die at a young age with tuberculosis before he could write down all the ideas in his head. Line 9-12 is about Keats fear that he will lose his beloved one. It is normal to lose your beloved ones during your life. However, Keats lost both of his parents when he was still young therefore he didn’t receive the love that he needed when he was young. Because of this, he was very desperate for a love which is another reason why he wrote this poem to show his passion for love. Background of the poet and the era are a significant context which contribute to my

The second stanza is where the poem becomes more sinister, “We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre” (17). The author uses the word “hoarded” to show the greediness of being young. This point is furthered with, “A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache” (19). The authors distinct use of “cache” continues to prove the gluttony of being young. The word “glutting” shows how they have a coy amount of fruit, and this only causes rot. As the berries continue to degrade, it symbolises how the person is growing up. They start out young and fruitful, but with the passing of time the favorable aspects of the fruit recede to leave the tainted part; adulthood. This is also expressed through the non-parallel structure of this poem with the first stanza being substantially longer. With the first stanza having an optimistic tone compared the foul tone of the second stanza indicating that the good aspects of being young outweigh the negative parts.

This poem dose not just show symbolism it also shows how dissections are all around us.All the things in this paper are all connected by how they are all about how they are all about choices and how they will all connect.This poem was written in 1916 and we still don’t know what the true meaning of the poem and we have so many theory about the

“The relationship between the energies of the inquiring mind that an intelligent reader brings to the poem and the poem’s refusal to yield a single comprehensive interpretation enacts vividly the everlasting intercourse between the human mind, with its instinct to organise and harmonise, and the baffling powers of the universe about it.”