Sejeong, Lee
Jamelano, Zygel Doll S.

John Keats was an English Romantic poet. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of romantic poets along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his work only having been in publication for four years before his death. 
Although his poems were not generally well received by critics during his life, his reputation grew after his death, so that by the end of the 19th century he had become one of the most beloved of all English poets. He had a significant influence on a diverse range of later poets and writers. Jorge Luis Borges stated that his first encounter with Keats was the most significant literary experience of his life. 
The poetry of Keats is characterized by sensual imagery, most notably in the series of odes. Today his poems and letters are some of the most popular and most analysed in English literature. 

                                                                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.

As we read the story of Keats’s life, we became aware that the author himself had written several sonnets which had the same subject and central theme which is death, however, this specific poem of his seems to be his “début” when compared to a song, for in this poem he had painted a picture of death as no other poet had done before. We think that the poet had written this for throughout his life because death had been his constant companion, his family history had been constantly visited by plagues and diseases and just three years after writing this poem one of his brothers also departed from him. Also, it was seen that the poet has a fear of mortality, not gaining love and finally being unknown all through the span of his short life. We believe that poems are made when emotions are at their highest and when simple words cannot justify the language of the heart. For this very reason is how we think this poem was made. To express in the most creative way what is unspoken and so that behind simple words are encoded messages which only people who experiences the same situation can understand.