When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be / Keats, John

                                      1816
                    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 glean'd my teeming brain,
        Before high-piled books in charact'ry
          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.

                        THE END
.