keats - "When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be"

What is the structure of "When I have fears ..."?

- English sonnet, but turn is in the last two AND A HALF lines - divided into 3 quatrains, each w/ a different purpose

What analogy does Keats make in the 1st quatrain?

- an analogy b/w knowledge and a harvest - both have an element of "fulfillment" to them

What are the 1st and 2nd quatrains' main idea?

- both of these quatrains express a fear of not fulfilling his promise as a writer - 1st quatrain is a tangible fear, but the 2nd quatrain expresses a fear that is much more esoteric and ethereal

In line 2, what does glean & teem mean?

- glean: collecting patiently or picking out laboriously - teeming: plentiful, overflowing, or produced in large quantities

What does it mean for the speaker to be standing alone on the shore?

- he is an isolated individual in contrast to the "wide world", highlighting the insignificance of the individual

How is Keats "egotistical"?

- he sees the world as awaiting his "magic hand" to transform it into poetry - sees the importance beneath the surface of the physical world

In line 6, what does high romance mean?

- high: of an elevated or exalted character or quality - romance: medieval narrative of chivalry/an idealistic fiction which tends not to be realistic

How is the imagery of a "harvest" symbolic?

- it harkens to the bucolic and pastoral antecedents of Romanticism - emphasizes the fertility of his imagination and how much he has to express

What does it mean when the love has a "faery power"?

- it has the power to transform the world for the lovers - but faeries aren't real, so the power is illusive, but maybe the lovers don't really care - their love is also unexamined and "unreflected", creating a clear division b/w love and thought

What does the shore represent?

- shore is the boundary b/w life and death - also the boundary b/w the anxiety he has previously expressed in the quatrains and the peace he will feel in the realization that none of that matters

How does Keats reinforce the analogy b/w knowledge and harvest?

- the alliteration of major words (glean'd, garner, grain) - repetitive r/consonance (chaRactery, Rich, gaRners, Ripen'd, gRain) - stressed the abundance of his creativity w/ "ripe" and "high-piled"

What does the repetitive use of "when" symbolize?

- the focus on the shortness of life - "when" = time passing

What is Keats purpose in cutting the last line of the final quatrain off midway?

- to parallel the theme/fear for the shortness of life ... the inexpectancy of death - could also be the fact that Keats values poetry > love (cut the stanza about love and not the first two about his writing)

What is the overall main idea of the poem?

all of the quatrains represent the speaker's fear of dying young

In line 4, what does garners mean?

granaries or storehouses for grain

In line 3, what does charactery mean?

printing or handwriting

This poem is also about the ...

purpose and timelessness of art, very similar to Shelley and Spenser

Where does the speaker go in the turn?

speaker is standing on the shore, a boundary b/w two worlds (the land and the sea)

What is this poem about?

the acceptance of insignificance ... Keats must accept the unimportance of fame and love in the grand scheme of things b/c everyone will be dead in the end

What is the 3rd quatrain's main idea?

the speaker fears losing his beloved

How is the shore a "romantic" trait?

the speaker realizes how small his life and problems were in comparison to the vast lands/waters (nature)