WHEN%20I%20HAVE%20FEARS%20THAT%20I%20MAY%20CEASE%20TO%20BE

1
WHEN I HAVE FEARS THAT I MAY CEASE TO BE

• JOHN KEATS (1795-1821)

2
MORE ABOUT THE POET

• John Keats was born on 31 October 1795 . John was
  born in central London.
• In the summer of 1803, unable to attend Eton or
  Harrow because of expense, he was sent to board
  at John Clarke's school, close to his
  grandparents' house.
• The headmaster's son, Charles Cowden Clarke, was
  to become an important influence, mentor and
  friend, and introduced Keats to a great deal of
  Renaissance literature.
• In April 1804, only nine months after Keats had
  started at Enfield, his father died when he
  fractured his skull after falling from his horse
  on a return visit to the school.
• Frances remarried two months afterwards, but left
  her new husband soon after and, with her four
  children, went to live with the children's
  grandmother, Alice Jennings.

3

• In March 1810, when Keats was 14, his mother died
  of TB leaving the children in the custody of
  their grandmother.
• Jennings appointed two guardians to take care of
  the children.
• That autumn, Keats was removed from Clarke's
  school to apprentice with Thomas Hammond  a
  surgeon and apothecary.
• Until 1813 he lodged with Hammond and slept in
  the attic above the surgery.
• In 1815, Keats registered as a medical student.

4

• Within a month of starting, he was accepted for a
  dressership position within the hospital a
  significant promotion with increased
  responsibility and workload, taking up precious
  writing time and increasing his ambivalence to
  working in medicine.
• Strongly drawn by an ambition inspired by fellow
  poets but beleaguered by family financial crises
  that continued to the end of his life, he
  suffered periods of deep depression.
• His brother George wrote that John "feared that
  he should never be a poet, if he was not he
  would destroy himself".

5

• In 1816, Keats received his apothecary's licence
  but before the end of the year he announced to
  his guardian that he had resolved to be a poet,
  not a surgeon.
• In bad health and unhappy with living in London,
  in April 1817 Keats moved with his brothers into
  rooms at 1 Well Walk.
• Both John and George nursed their brother Tom,
  who was suffering from tuberculosis.

6

• In July, while on a walking tour, Keats caught a
  bad cold and "was too thin and fevered to proceed
  on the journey".
• On his return south, Keats continued to nurse
  Tom, exposing himself to the highly infectious
  disease.
• His brother, Tom Keats died on 1 December 1818.
• Keats went to Italy to recover, but he died in
  Rome a few months later in 1821 at the age of 26.
  

7
WHEN I HAVE FEARS THAT I MAY CEASE TO BE

• When I have fears that I may cease to be 1
• Before my pen has gleand my teeming brain, 2
• Before high-piled books, in charactery, 3
• Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain 4
• When I behold, upon the nights starrd face, 5
• Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance, 6
• And think that I may never live to trace 7
• Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance 8
• And when I feel, fair creature of an hour, 9
• That I shall never look upon thee more, 10
• Never have relish in the fairy power 11
• Of unreflecting love - then on the shore 12
• Of the wide world I stand alone, and think 13
• Till love and fame to nothingness do sink. 14

8

• Form/Structure Shakespearian Sonnet 3
  Quatrains and a Rhyming Couplet
• Abab cdcd efef gg

9

• When I have fears that I may cease to be 1
• Before my pen has gleand my teeming brain, 2
• Before high-piled books, in charactery, 3
• Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain 4

10

• Lines 1-4 The poet is afraid that he may die
  (cease to be) before he has turned into
  literature the abundance of thoughts and ideas in
  his mind, before he has completed a high pile of
  books in writing that contain all his rich ideas
  and thoughts, just like a granary filled with
  ripe grain.

11

• When I behold, upon the nights starrd face, 5
• Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance, 6
• And think that I may never live to trace 7
• Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance 8

12

• Lines 5-8 When he looks at the romantic figures
  formed in the night sky, he fears that he may not
  live long enough to include his ideas about them
  in his writing.

13

• And when I feel, fair creature of an hour, 9
• That I shall never look upon thee more, 10
• Never have relish in the fairy power 11
• Of unreflecting love - then on the shore 12

14

• Lines 9-12 He fears that he will never again see
  the beautiful woman, whom he has known for only
  an hour, to enjoy the fairy-like, spontaneous
  love that may grow from the relationship.

15

• Of the wide world I stand alone, and think 13
• Till love and fame to nothingness do sink. 14

16

• Lines 13-14 When the poet has these fears, he
  feels like standing alone on the brink of death,
  and he thinks how insignificant love and fame
  will be in the wide expanse of Gods creation.

17

• gleand (line 2) harvested, gathered
• teeming (line 2) alive, bursting with ideas and
  thoughts
• charactery (line 3) letters, word and symbols
  used by the poet when writing
• garners (line 4) store-houses for corn
• behold (line 50 see
• starrd (line5) stars covering the sky
• trace (line 7) pursue, trail
• fair creature (line 9) referring to the woman he
  has fallen in love with
• have relish in (line 11) enjoy
• faery (line 11) fairy-like
• unreflecting (line 12) sincere, spontaneous

18
THEME/INTERPRETATION OF THE POEM

• John Keats wrote this sonnet in 1818, three years
  before his death in 1821. When reading this poem,
  one realises that Keats must have had a
  foreboding that he might die soon and be unable
  to fulfil his ideals. He still had many ideas and
  thoughts about literary works that he wanted to
  write before he died. Still being a young man (23
  when he wrote this poem), he feared that he also
  would not have the opportunity to develop a
  romantic love relationship with a woman. The
  poem is directly linked to Keats personal life
  experience, and the fears expressed in the poem.
  The couplet sums up his final thought about his
  fears When he dies, his love relationship and
  the fame he may achieve through his writing will
  become totally insignificant in Gods creation.

19
FIGURES OF SPEECH

• Euphemism that I may cease to be (line 1 )
  euphemism for death
• Personification Before my pen has gleand my
  teeming brain comparing his pen to gleaners
  who have cleaned the corn fields of corn. He
  wants his pen to write down all the ideas he has
  before he dies.
• the nights starrd face the stars covering
  the night sky
• with the magic hand of chance He may not have
  the opportunity of inspiration to write about the
  romantic images and symbols he sees
• Metaphor then on the shore/of the wide world I
  stand alone he has come to the end of his life
  and is standing on the brink of death
• Till love and fame to nothingness do sink
  Love and fame will disappear and become
  insignificant after death like a ship sinking
  into the depths of the sea and is lost forever.
• Simile Before high-piled books.../Hold like
  rich garners the full ripened grain the books
  he would write would contain all his precious,
  matured ideas and thoughts, just like a full
  granary contains the fully ripened corn. It also
  signifies that the poets ideas will take time to
  develop into something substantial.