John Keats

When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be

By John Keats

(written in 1818, published posthumously in 1848)

When I have fears that I may cease to be 

Before my pen has gleaned 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 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.