Keats's Fears
"When I Have Fears" is a beautiful sonnet in which John Keats gives expression of his desolate fears. The impending demise of Keats creates limitations which become his fears. He fears that he will not be able to achieve fame, enjoy beauty and savour love because he will sooner die of tuberculosis.
The first quatrain describes his fear of not getting fame as a poet. He worries that his premature death will leave his poetry in parenthesis. Though he has a "teeming brain", full of ideas, images and thoughts yet he will not become a Shakespeare. His death is hovering over him.
The second quatrain highlights his fear of not getting enough time to enjoy the physical beauty of Nature. He says that heaven is boasting of its beauty with its starry nights and shadowy clouds. Unfortunately, his anticipated death will deprive him of relishing these beautiful scenes.
The third quatrain expresses his fear of not getting a chance to develop a love-affair. His erstwhile beloved, Fanny Brawn, has already deserted him. Now he fears that he will never become an inamorato of anybody. Thus he says in the last couplet, "On the shore of the wide world I stand alone".
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