When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be

BY JOHN KEATS
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,
Before high-pild books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain;
When I behold, upon the nights 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 lovethen on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

John Keats (/kits/; 31 October 1795 23 February 1821) was an English Romantic poet.
He was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets along with Lord
Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his work having been in publication for only four
years before his death.
Although his poems were not generally well received by critics during his life, his reputation
grew after his death, so that by the end of the 19th century, he had become one of the most
beloved of all English poets. He had a significant influence on a diverse range of poets and
writers.Jorge Luis Borges stated that his first encounter with Keats was the most significant
literary experience of his life
The poetry of Keats is characterised by sensual imagery, most notably in the series
of odes. Today his poems and letters are some of the most popular and most analysed in
English literature.