CITY POSTGRADUATE COLLEGE FOR WOMEN

JHELUM
.1 What are the Poet’s Fear?
When I have Fears is an autobiographical poem in which the poet gushes forth
his frustration and agony regarding his premature death. He wants to transform all
his great ideas into concrete sheep and leave his name among the Immortals.But
the angel of death was not ready to give him time and here he expresses his three
fears.

Firstly, in the opening stanza, he expresses his first deep-seated fear that he may
die at any moment. He regrets that his untimely death will not allow him to fulfill
his ambition of becoming a great poet. He feels that his mind is over flowing with
poetic thoughts and fancies. His mental harvest needs time to get mature. Then he
would reap it with help of his pen.

When I have fears that I may cease to be 

Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,

Then he expresses his Second fear. When he looks at the sky full of shining stars
and huge clouds, it intensifies his fears. These shining stars and huge clouds are
romantic symbols and are source of inspiration for him. These beautiful objects of
nature, such as the dark face of night decorated with shining stars agitate and
inspired him. Romantic ideas come crowding to his mind like thick clouds. The
poet wants to trace these hints of poetic truth with magic hands of chance but he
regrets that he may never live to show his poetic worth.

When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face, 

Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,

Then Lastly,he expresses his third fear. When he looks at fair creative of an hour,
his heart is filled with pain and sorrow as he will not remain alive to enjoy his
poetic faculties. He is in love with a beautiful girl who is cold and indifferent to
him. He feels sad that his untimely death will deprive him of pleasure of looking
on her charming face.

And when I feel, fair creature of an hour! 

That I shall never look upon thee more,
In the final couplet of the poem, keats tells the reader that upon considering
these fears, he realizes that in the end the fact is simply that he is going to die,
and all of these other things- fame, poetry, greatness and love, "to nothingness
do sink"- in other words, they become worthless to him if he is going to die
anyway. Also in the final couplet Keats says  “then on the shore of the
wide world,” which suggests that Keats is on the edge between life and death,
because at the time he knew he would soon die.

Q.2 why does Keats feel so lonely and sad on the shore of the wide world?

Ans: John Keats is one of the greatest poets of English language. He had inherited
T.B and died before reaching the age of twenty six. During the last years of life, he
feels so lonely and sad due to certain Firstly, he knew he did not have much
wealth to attract women or friends to enjoy their company happily. It is well said

“Living alone is easy but dying alone is not easy”

Secondly, he was a great poet and could only write beautiful verses. But the
worldly people do not have great vision to understand him. They do not desire to
have high ideas or description of an ideal world in poetry. They were loosening the
arrows of criticism and created many troubles for him. They rather want to have
show, glamour and glitter of life in the form of place – like houses dances, drinking
and other forms of merry-making. Keats could not have any of these in his life to
share them with others.

Thirdly, Keats feels alone because the girl whom he loves from the care of his
heart and leaves him in the quagmire of despair. Her callous behavior makes him
feel isolation.

Fourthly, he has already lost his younger brother; tom, whom he misses a lot and
feels isolation.