When I have fears
- John Keats
What are you afraid of?
List your top three fears/phobias
Why do you have these fears?
Are they common to all humans inherent?
Do they result from an experience?
Will they change over time?
Context of the poem.
•
•
•
•
•
Keats knew death and was well aware of the fragility of life.
Father died when Keats was 9 years old
Mother died of TB when he was 14
He trained as a surgical assistant
He nursed his brother Tom through the later stages of Tuberculosis
until Tom’s death.
• He wrote; ‘When I Have Fears’ in Jan 1818 and Tom died in Dec
1818
• He wrote: ‘When I Have Fears’ at least a year before meeting Fanny
Brawne. (the Brawne’s moved into part of Wentworth Place in April
1819)
• He was conscious of mortality – evident in his poems Bright Star
and Ode to Autumn
Themes
Task: Break into table groups and look at
each quatrain. What themes are evident?
• Lament for lost opportunities
– Unfulfilled maturity as a writer
– Experience the magic of love
– Experience life and the wonders of the world
Form/Structure
• Shakespearean (or Elizabethan) sonnet
• 3 Quatrains and a final rhyming couplet
• Each quatrain progresses the themes in the poem with
the exception of the couplet – that drastically changes
the mood to one of despair
Why did Keats use the Shakespearean sonnet form here
rather than the Petrarchan?
Read the analysis:
http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/316/analysis-of-johnkeatss-when-i-have-fears-death-the-freedom-of-limitations
A closer look at the first quatrain
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;
Vocabulary: teeming – overflowing,
glean’d - extract something/take something out/harvested
charactery – printing/handwriting,
garners – granary (where corn in stored)
1) What euphemism does Keats use in the first line?
2) Explain the metaphor that Keats uses in connection with his writing.
3) How does the use of this metaphor help to express his thoughts
about his writing and his fear in this quatrain?
Language/imagery: Quatrain One
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;
Key language features of the first Quatrain 1:
- He’s afraid he’s going to die before his work has matured
- Use of simile for the books compared to the garners
(granary) of the brain - grain/brain
- Assonance: the rich vowel sounds in glean’d and
teeming express the wealth of the brain
- Repetition: Before conveys a sense of unfulfillment
A closer look at the second
quatrain
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;
Vocabulary: high romance – the sublime
1) Explain how Keats uses personification to show the power of the
sublime, the natural phenomenon around him and the imagination
2) What are the ‘cloudy symbols’ and the ‘shadows’?
3) Explain the parallel between ‘the magic hand of chance’ and the
poet as a writer.
Language/Imagery: Quatrain Two
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;
-
-
-
Develops the theme in the first quatrain, but begins to realise the
loss of emotional fulfilment and life experiences. The Romantic
‘sublime’
Personification: night – romantic notion of the magic of the natural
world – heavens are pure and love transcends the earth/heavens
barrier
Metaphor extends the personification by reinforcing the notion of
poetic inspiration derived from the natural world
Assonance of round and rich ‘o’ sounds at the start of the quatrain
contrast with the harsh ‘a’ sounds of the ‘magic hand of chance’
A closer look at the third
quatrain
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
1) What is Keats trying to emphasis when he refers to his
love as ‘fair creature of an hour!’?
2) What is the effective of the repetition of the negative
lexis ‘never’?
3) This quatrain is interrupted by the caesura (--) What is
the effect of this interruption and how does it emphasis
Keats’ fears?
Language/Imagery: Quatrain Three
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
-
-
Develops the themes of love especially mortal love and introduces
the theme of futility.
Change in this quatrain – direct address and an sense of urgency is
expressed – an hour
! Adds to the sense of urgency/desperation
Alliteration of the soft ‘f’ sound alludes to the beauty and brevity of
love
Lexis turns negative – repetition of never. Progressive of the ‘may
never’, ‘shall never’, ‘Never’ increases tension, desperation
Unreflecting – ideal of romantic love, one sided, spontaneous love
Caesura – breaks the thought process and leads into the final
rhyming couplet – change in mood from me, me, me to ….
A closer look at the rhyming
couplet
--then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.
1) Sum up the mood in these closing lines.
Identify the words which create this feeling.
2) What is Keats’ final realization about fame and
love?
3) How does he use the metaphor to emphasize
this point?
Language/Imagery: Rhyming couplet
--then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.
-
Inversion of the mood of the poem, but also a logical realisation by
the poet of his own insignificance in the face of eternity. Overturns
the rest of the sonnet.
Discourse marker: Then indicates the shift in tone – Keats’ reality
check
Metaphor of the shore: unobstructed view of the horizon, ‘I can see
clearly now’
Shore and Alone: the image of a lone person juxtaposed with the
vastness and power of the ocean
Alliteration: Wide World the ‘w’ sound emphasises the image of the
vastness of space and time
Monosyllabic words: think, love, fame, sink in contrast to previous
flowery romantic polysyllabic words – this reflects Keats reality
check
Paradoxical ending – he resolves his fear by asserting the
unimportance of love and fame. Death makes it meaningless.
Death is to be feared but in some ways it resolves the fears because
it ends the fears!
Plenary
Direct address: Why has Keats used this?
First Person: How has this impacted the message
relayed in the poem?
How important are you?
How much do you value yourself?
What thoughts does Keats want to leave the
reader?
What image do you have of the poet?
Does he progress from arrogance to humility?