FREE ESSAY ON ESSAY ON KEAT'S WHEN I HAVE FEARS

ESSAY ON KEAT'S WHEN I HAVE FEARS

In his English sonnet "When I Have Fears" (pg. 17, Vendler), John Keats attempts to put
into words the human emotions felt when dealing with death. I believe that Keats wrote
this poem to describe the natural order of emotions he went through while thinking of his
own mortality. The tone of the sonnet takes a "roller coaster" course throughout the poem
from one quatrain to the next. With careful examination one can see that Keats used the
first quatrain to describe a state of utter confusion, the second to express a calm and
bittersweet feeling, the third to describe a feeling of immense fear, and the final
couplet to express a feeling of acceptance.
The first quatrain deals with the first of four emotions that Keats expresses throughout
the sonnet. The first line, "When I have fears that I may cease to be" (pg. 17, Vendler)
immediately tells the reader that this is a poem about John Keats' fear of death. The
fact that he says, "When I have fears..." leads me to believe that these fears are not an
everyday experience, but a common occurrence that bothers him from time to time. It is
also in this quatrain that Keats uses agricultural metaphors to describe his fears of
death. In the second line, "Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain," (pg. 17,
Vendler) we see the first of these metaphors with the use of the word "gleaned." If
something is gleaned it implies that it is being raked, scraped, or sorted with some kind
of farming or gardening tool. The other important word in this second line is "teeming",
which is synonymous to swarming, packed, or crowded. When Keats describes his "teeming
brain," one can imagine millions of thoughts and fears running rampant throughout his
mind, leaving him in a state of utter confusion. This entire second line is intended to
tell us that by writing this sonnet, Keats is "raking" or sorting all of the fears that
have cluttered his mind. 
The third line of the sonnet also supports the notion that Keats was overloaded with
dread and perplexity. "Before high-piled books, in charact'ry," (pg. 17, Vendler) is
another metaphor of a cluttered desk that directly relates to the unbalance of emotions
and thoughts that arise when he thinks of death. In the fourth line, "Hold like rich
garners the full-ripened grain;" (pg. 17, Vendler) Keats once again returns the
agricultural metaphor. Garners are the large storage facilities on farms that hold large
quantities of grain before it is shipped off and sold. In this particular case I believe
Keats used grain as a metaphor for human life. The grain had been tended to and nourished
for some time, where it was then picked and killed by the farmers, and placed into a
garner. It is possible that Keats intended the garner to be a metaphor for a cemetery or
something that lies beyond the life of the individual. Keats' genius can be seen through
his agricultural metaphors, as both individual life and farming follow a vicious cycle
that cannot go unbroken. Humans, much like crops, come from the earth and in time we
return to the earth. It is an inescapable aspect of all living beings.
With the beginning of the second quatrain, the reader experiences the first change of
tone. The fifth line reads, "When I behold, upon the night's starred face," (pg. 17,
Vendler) which is an enormous transition from a cluttered and overflowing desk. It almost
seems to say that he has "gleaned" his mind with his pen, so to speak, and has calmed
himself down a bit. He therefore uses the tranquil picture of a starry sky with large
clouds to demonstrate his sudden change in mood. As the quatrain continues, he begins to
express the notion that there may be many things that he won't be able to do in his
lifetime as shown in the seventh and eighth lines: "And think that I may never live to
trace...Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;" (pg. 17, Vendler). In these
particular lines the reader doesn't obtain the same sense of fear that was so greatly
expressed in the first quatrain. If one were to draw out an "emotional curve" of this
poem, it would start with a dramatic increase throughout the first quatrain and then
quickly drop down with the second quatrain, creating the "roller coaster" effect
mentioned earlier.
As that roller coaster continues on, it once again quickly rises with the third quatrain.
The calm and serene Keats of the second quatrain quickly rediscovers his fears, and they
almost seem to explode in this climactic third quatrain. It is as if all the fears that
he was beginning to come to terms with catch up with Keats tenfold and send him into a
state of sheer horror. As he states in lines ten and eleven, "That I shall never look
upon thee more, Never have relish in the faery power...Of unreflecting love!" (pg. 17,
Vendler) This is similar to his emotions in the second quatrain concerning things he will
not be able to do within his lifetime. The only difference is he seems far more regretful
and fearful as opposed to the accepting nature Keats displayed in the second quatrain.
Keats is in his own way saying, "There is so much I want to do, and my life is too short
for me to do all of these things!" 
This roller coaster ride seems to quickly come to an end as the last couplet of the
sonnet demonstrates Keats' fourth and final change in tone. The last two lines of the
poem read, "then on the shore Of the wide world I stand alone, and think Till Love and
Fame to nothingness do sink."(pg. 17, Vendler) This once again returns to the accepting
nature that was seen in the second quatrain, only this time it appears that there will be
no returning to his fearful state. Keats seems to be at peace with himself here, as he
realizes that love and fame, virtues that many men hold dear to their hearts, mean
nothing in the end as he stands alone to face his death. 
The only question left to ask, is how does one explain Keats sudden changes in mood? I
believe the answer is that there is no answer. Keats does a wonderful job expressing how
the human mind works throughout his poem, "When I Have Fears." Sometimes when dwelling on
one particular fear or idea, the mind can be sent on a roller coaster ride that climbs
and falls from one emotion to the next. This, I believe, is the best and only way to
describe the different emotions throughout the poem. 
Bibliography
WORKS CITED
Vendler, Helen Poems - Poets - Poetry Keats, John "When I Have Fears"