John Keats has written the poem ‘When I Have Fears’ to express one of the most ineluctable feelings that one can have; the fear of death. “When I Have Fears” represents the admire and hunger for greater poetry, and wish for realizing the dreams of love and fame: selfish desire of human-being. Thus, what poet fears is being unable to fulfill his dreams. The title ‘When I Have Fears’ is also quite clue-giving: Keats fears the time he will die will come, although what he fears most is what he would leave behind when he died: love, fame and composing new poetry. He fears not being able to live and experience the honorable moments of life. (It is known that Keats had experienced much loss as a boy; also he died very young, at age of 26). As in a typical sonnet, this main theme is developed through all quatrains of the poem.
Writing in an informal manner, the poet does not spesifically adress to someone, but to whom also reader can emphatize. The purpose of the author could be figured out by the reader: To express and share a pained mood. Therefore, the poet uses direct speech in order to create a sincere, sharing atmosphere with the reader. In addition to this, the poem has an intimate though a sorrowful tone. Keats reflects the tone and the main theme by composing assorted vocabulary, grammatical structures and figurative, non-standard language. For instance, at first line:
‘When I have fears that I may cease to be’
the meaning conveyed is quite literal on account of the choice of words of the poet. The phrase "cease to be" has a rather lasting connotation than the verb "die". Instead of just dying, it is as if his entire existence is rubbed off from earth and other’s memories. In order to intensify the emphasis on ‘undesired death’, at first quatrain the poet remarks his worry about leaving the world before having the chance to write, by personifying a pen: "Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain"
The poet uses figurative language for demonstrating the continuity of creativeness of his own. At last two lines of the first quatrain, Keats emphasizes once again how fertile his imagination is and how much he has to express before his death; by using the imagery of the harvest. In the Shakespearean metaphor of “garners”, “full-ripen’d grain,” thoughts and writing are associated with the natural world, time, food and the seasons. Also books (“high-piled books”) are similar to bread made from wheat; the work of the artist requires time to grow, harvest, and store. A harvest obviously yields some valuable products as reflected in the grain being "full ripen'd" and the garners being "rich". Likewise, the work of a poet is much more valuable and appraised after some time of being produced: this is one reason for the author’s desire to catch up the time and increase his recognition, rather than to die at a young age. In order to convey this message and raise emotions in the reader, he uses intense and metaphorical adverbs, adjectives and uncommon words such as “glean’d” , “teeming” , “high-piled” , “charact’ry” , “rich” , “full ripen’d”. The ‘–e’ sound in ‘gleaned’, ‘full-ripened’, ‘charactery’ is not spelled in text, but an apostrophe is used instead. Therefore, the dialect at the first quatrain differs from that of the entire poet. Another phonological feature is the alliteration of the words "glean'd," garners," and "grain". The repetition of ‘-g’ consonant in the first quatrain has an effect on subconscious of the reader, the message is stronger and more solid due to the powerful connotations of that sound.
