John Keats was another young poet who greatly shaped the world of poetry with his sonnets and ode-writings. He was the son of a working class family. Keats was not able to get a formal education, yet he was classified as a brilliant writer. Of all the pieces that are in our text, I enjoyed reading the Sonnet "When I have fears" and I would like to share with you what I thought Keats was trying to bring across to his readers.
Keats was at a difficult time in his life when he wrote, "When I have fears." The theme of this piece is to convey to his readers, his fears and how they fit in the overall picture of life. Keats was in his early twenties and his health was worsening and this must have caused him to have fears. Fears that he would not be able to accomplished all that he desires and the fear that he might not be able to marry the girl of her dreams. This is so typical of the human nature. We all have fears not knowing what the future holds for us. It is how we deal with our fears which is very important.
In the verses, "When I have fears that I may cease to be, before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain....full-ripened grain" expresses Keats fears that he may die before he is able to write and communicate all his ideas and get them down on paper. By writing his ideas down would reflect permanence which will be available to his readers for years to come and Keats feared that he may not be able to do this.
When he states that, "When I behold upon the night's starred face, ....and think that I may never live to trace their shadows with the magic hand of chance" tells of his fears that he may not live to see what the future holds for him. Here Keats expanded on the first four verses, making reference to stars which symbolizes foretelling of the future.
Keats continues his Sonnet by stating that, "And when I feel, fair creature of an hour, that I shall never look upon thee more, never have relish in the fairy power of unreflected love" conveys his fear of not being able to experienced love with the woman that he loves.
Finally, in these verses "Then on the shore of the wide world I stand alone and think, till love and fame to nothingness do sink," presents a picture of himself standing alone on the shore of the wide world with all personal ambitions, love and concerns erased from his mind by all that he contemplates. Then he realized that all that he feared is trivial compared to what there is out there. This assertion allows him to get a grip on his fears. In applying the last verses to my life, I think Keats was trying to convey that there is nothing to fear not even death because we cannot change what the future holds. As a Christian, I do believe that death is not all there is to life, there is life after death so why fear.
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2 comments:
Anthony,
Very god focus on this sonnet by Keats, and some good commentary on the passages you quote from it. One suggestion I would make, though, is to go into more depth in your comments. At times you seem merely to be restating the lines, or summarizing their meaning, rather than digging into them (as you did to very good effect in your post on Hemans). Also, whenever you quote please provide a parenthetical citation, with the page number if you are quoting prose and the line number if you are quoting poetry.
You did a great job on this post. You have great ideas and I would love to hear more about what you think.
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