Keats: When I have fears that I may cease to be

Question 1

Title

When I have fears that I may cease to be

Answer 1

When I have fears that I may cease to be
- IP highlights important points

Question 2

Form

Answer 2

Shakespearean sonnet
ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Question 3

1st quatrain

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,
Before high-pilèd books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain;

Answer 3

• “before…before”- Repetition emphasises theme of time.
• “;” marks the end of the quatrain, start of new ideas.

Question 4

2nd quatrain

When I behold, upon the night’s 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;

Answer 4

• “scarred face”- Keats’ trope- sky. (link to “on first looking…”)
• “magic hand of chance”- quatrain ends with death, emph. how it is beyond his control.

Question 5

3rd 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

Answer 5

• “fair creature”- FB
• “never…never”- goes against the IP, emphasises his point. (spondee)
• “love!-then”- volta, 2 stressed syllables. volta not in classical place, caused by his high emotion.
• Rhyming couplet + internal rhyme- internal thought & conclusion.

Question 6

Written

Answer 6

January 1818. Published posthumously.