"When I Have Fears"

So, I decided to take a break from all of the military and war conflict and choose a work that focused on internal conflict.
The next work I am to analyze is one by one of my favorite poets of all time, John Keats. “When I Have Fears” is a poem about conflict, a conflict that Keats had internally. He wrote this poem in 1820, shortly before his death from tuberculosis in 1821. In the poem Keats is fighting with himself, disappointed, and unhappy with his fate. He knows he is dying; so he must let the readers know that he has dreams that he wishes he could complete. He longs to achieve great fame, to love, and overall, he longs to write all that he can while he is still alive.
This Shakespearean sonnet is one that I adore deeply. In the poem, we have a weary Keats as the speaker, with a sad, pensive tone. In the beginning of the poem he presents his problem: to die before he can show his true poetic skill. “When I have fears that I may cease to be before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain…”(lines 1-2). He has been faced with the most horrid of fates, for such a talented youth to die at such a young age of 26. He metaphorically compares books to rich, ripe grain, where each word of the book holds some vital information that Keats needs to further his literary goals(lines3-4). These are the things that will bring him fame from his audience, so he can be remembered after death.
It is ironic that Keats speaks so longingly of fame and love, and yet he must let them go. “And when I feel, fair creature of an hour, that I shall never look upon thee more…”(lines10-11). He will never see the love of his life again. At the twelfth line of the poem, the turn takes place. Keats has accepted the fact that he will die, and not only that, but it could be at any moment because of the severity of his illness. “ …--then on the shore of the wide world I stand alone, and think till love and fame t nothingness do sink”(lines13-14). With the knowledge of death in mind, Keats decides that with the small fraction of time he has, he will achieve all that he can. What he cannot finish in this life he will have to forget. Because he could not finish in his lifetime, then it was not meant to be done.