Sonnet · Death & Loss
When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be
by John Keats · 1848
1Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
2Before high pilèd books, in charactry,
3Hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain;
4When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
5Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
6And think that I may never live to trace
7Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
8And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
9That I shall never look upon thee more,
10Never have relish in the faery power
11Of unreflecting love;—then on the shore
12Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
13Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be” by John Keats — quilloak.com/poems/when-i-have-fears
Quick facts
- Poem
- When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be
- Poet
- John Keats
- Published
- 1848
- Length
- 13 lines
- Form
- Sonnet
- Themes
- Death & Loss, Love, Dreams & Sleep
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 13 lines · one 13-line stanza
- End rhyme
- ABACDCDEFEFGG.
- Line length
- Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the cited edition and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- John Keats1795–1821
- Source record
- WikisourceWhen I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be by john-keats, Wikisource transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1848
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 efb1a1de8cf486e0…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.