English History

  • Poets
    • Byron
      • Letters
      • Poems
      • General
    • Keats
      • Letters
      • Poetry
    • Shakespeare
      • Plays
    • Tennyson
  • Vikings
  • Middle Ages
  • Stuarts
    • English Civil War
  • Tudor
    • Monarchs
    • Citizens
    • Relatives
    • Letters
    • Quizzes
  • Vikings
  • About
    • Start a History Blog
    • Cookie Policy
    • Contact
    • The Right to Display Public Domain Images
    • Author & Reference Information For Students

When I have fears that I may cease to be by John Keats

This poem was sent in a letter to John Hamilton Reynolds, dated 31 January 1818. It was first published in Richard Monckton Milnes’s 1848 biography of Keats. It has since become one of the poet’s most famous compositions.

The ‘fair creature of an hour’ is believed to be the same unidentified woman addressed in ‘Fill for me a brimming bowl’ and ‘Time’s sea hath been’.

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen’d grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d 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.

Read More English History Topics

Link/cite this page

If you use any of the content on this page in your own work, please use the code below to cite this page as the source of the content.

Link will appear as Hanson, Marilee. "When I have fears that I may cease to be by John Keats" https://englishhistory.net/keats/poetry/when-i-have-fears-that-i-may-cease-to-be/, February 22, 2015

Search English History

Popular Posts

Queen Mary I: Facts, Information, Biography & Portraits (Queen Mary Tudor, Bloody Mary)
The Human Seasons by John Keats
Lady Jane Grey – Facts, Biography, Information & Portraits
Thomas Cromwell – Facts & Biography Information
Lady Caroline Lamb Facts & Information – Lord Byron’s Lovers

Related Posts

Asleep

On Fame

To John Keats, Poet, at Spring Time’ by Countee Cullen

To Some Ladies – John Keats Poem

Robin Hood. To a Friend By John Keats

The Tudors

Lord Byron

John Keats

shakespeare

Copyright © 1999-2021 All Rights Reserved.
English History
Other Sites: Learn Web Development

Copyright © 2021 · English History 2015 on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

This site uses cookies More info