Sonnet: When I have fears

[vitreouswraith.livejournal.com]

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain
Before high piled books in charact'ry
Hold like rich garners the full-ripened grain;
When I behold upon the night's starred 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;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the fairy powre
Of unreflecting love -- then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone and think,
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

-- John Keats, Sonnet: When I have fears (1818)

Comments

[conductcoda.livejournal.com]

I LOVE that poem! The sheer irony that scholar believe that Keats would have surpassed Shakespeare if he had lived longer and THIS is his first Shakespearean sonnet ABOUT hoping he lives long enough to fulfill his potential! Incredible. Ah, life really is funny... in a sad kind of way.