An Audio Guide to Poetry Recitation - 25. "When I Have Fears Tha

An Audio Guide to Poetry Recitation - 25. "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be"


Audio Download

Although the romantic poet John Keats was born two centuries after Shakespeare, he passionately admired Shakespeare. That may be one reason why he wrote so many sonnets of his own. Here is Rita Dove reciting When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be.

When I Have Fears
by John Keats
[Read by Rita Dove]

When I have fears that I may cease to be
   Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,
Before high-pilèd books, in charactery,
   Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starred 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.