07 November, 2016

MONDAY POEM: WHEN I HAVE FEARS by John Keats


Happy Monday dear readers, today we fall back into the typical normal Mondays and shall continue to search the poetry world for beautiful and simple poems.

Today we are reading

WHEN I HAVE FEARS BY JOHN KEATS




Let's get to know John Keats:
John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English romantic poet. As a child he lost his two parents, constantly relocated and eventually ended up in Rome. Keats dead at a very young age of only 25 from tuberculosis. Keats was exceptionally sensitive and had a unique way of seeing things. A really heartbreaking fact is that during his short life his poems were not accepted by critics and no one believed Keats to be a poet. In a letter to his friend and love Fanny Brawn he wrote that he will die without leaving a mark in the world. Little did he know that now he is one of the most studied and quoted poets of all time.




When I Have Fears

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
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.




We are all humans and a normal emotion for a human to have is - fear. Fear of not being good enough, fear of losing someone, fear of not belonging. I also suffer from these fears and usually they all fall together into this self-doubt. I think this poem speaks of that moment when after an episode of self-doubting, feeling down and sad you finally see something: sunlight through the trees, someone smiling, people in love, or you hear laughter, and after that one significant moment you too forget the fear and start to believe in yourself again. You know everything will be alright! This poem always brings me these positive emotions.

Am I making sense, do you understand where I'm coming from? I hope you do. Anyway, remember we are all beautiful and unique and talented in our own unique way!

What did you think of WHEN I HAVE FEARS?