When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be (John Keats, 1818)

Analysis of When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be

     The poem, When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be by John Keats is a lyrical sonnet, which describes the speaker’s sentiments and fears of death. The misfortune of ceasing to exist, according to the speaker, is something tragic, having power, even over the most powerful of human ambitions: ‘love and fame’. Yet, according to the speaker, ‘high pilèd books’, ‘romance’ and all his experience in life that he ‘may never live to trace’ are meaningless in the tragic reality of death. The unpredictable ‘shadows’ of death are merely dealt by the ‘magic hand of chance’, and not only end the abstract nature of humanity, such as ‘love and fame’, but end time itself.

The speaker looks at his fame through his ‘high piled books’ and how, according to most, he had lived a fulfilling life, with ‘full, ripened grain’. Yet, despite this, he understands his mortality, and that he is exactly the same before the reality of death as every other person. He uses a number of devices to contrast his strength of ‘fame and love’ with his mortality; that he will ‘cease to be’. He uses imagery throughout, to emphasize both his successes and intellectuality and his mortal nature. The common imagery for success, the ripened grain is used to show off his intellectual successes.

Use of ‘night’ as symbolism for the nearing of his end must also not be overlooked, as it provides a transition to emphasis on his mortality. The speaker then uses the imagery of a clock to emphasize the ever-moving nature of time. Finally, he concludes, suggesting that his ‘faery powers’ are nothing at the brink of ‘the magic hand of chance. Hence, the poem’s main themes draw down to the speaker’s fame and love and emphasis that no matter how intellectual one is, he is still prone to ‘their shadows’.

The title of the poem seems to indicate some form of ‘fear’. However, less emphasis is placed on the fear, as on the sense of emptiness. ‘Till love and fame, to nothingness do sink’, he says. The speaker is keen to contrast the meaningless power that he possesses with the immeasurable power of the Universe and death. The ‘night’s starred face’ introduces his emptiness in comparison to the vast universe. He has fears that in his inferiority to the immense capacity of the universe, he will simply be forgotten.

It is important to note that a sense of time is emphasized throughout. For instance, the threefold repetition of ‘when’ indicates that time is flowing throughout the poem. Furthermore, there is imagery of the clock, symbolizing both time and death. ‘With the magic hand of chance’, he will be unable to exist. The clock is ticking, for in the next line, he says, ‘I shall never look upon thee more’.

And with his inability to exist, he knows that time itself will stop for him.

A contrast to this weakness is placed against his most valued possessions: his books, symbolizing his intellect. The speaker observes his times writing his many books, his ‘pen has gleaned’ his ‘teeming brain’. That is, he has written his own history, through his intellect. Finally, the fruit of his works await harvest, with its ‘full ripened grain’. He has completed much a successful life.

When discussing a poem about death, it is difficult to avoid discussing death itself as a component. However, the speaker does not seem to make use of the word ‘death’ but rather makes use of the phrase ‘cease to exist’.

Furthermore, the word ‘never’ is repeated threefold, indicating the speaker’s regret that time itself will cease to exist as he sinks away into ‘nothingness’.

It is possible to see that the speaker is describing the reality that all people will pass away, and his sentiments on being unable to exist further, rather than the fear of death itself.

The speaker wishes to convey his sentiment of something all can relate to: death. Yet, doing so from the perspective of an intellectual.

He has lived a successful life, and he is ready to be reaped. Yet, he looks upon the ‘wide world’ and finds how empty his life has been: searching for ‘love and fame’, which are meaningless before the reality of ‘ceasing to be’.

He wishes to convey, therefore, that the nature of death is the same to every person – whether intellectual and famous, having written a bookshelf full of books, or ignorant: whether loved or unloved. Death strikes at an unknown time ‘with the magic hand of chance’.

When I have fears that I may cease to be

John Keats, 1818

When I have fears that I may cease to be

   Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,

Before high-pilèd books, in charactery,

   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 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.