Of mortal fears and an eternal imagination

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.

-- Keats

One among my favorite sonnets of keats, the above masterpiece is a beautiful expression of the gravest fear of man - death.More than the apprehension of the inevitable, it conceives his deep angst at being incapacitated of relinquishing his inordinate desires.The opening lines, or in poetic parlance, the octave, is a metaphorical illustration of his fears of leaving his literary works unfulfilled . Keats, always impressive at romanticising thoughts, sublimely bemoans the potential loss of lady-love . Words, albeit sublime, convey profound feelings of separation and longing for the woman he loved (and lost) - 'the fair creature of an hour'.The last few lines would definitely touch a chord in any poetry lover's heart.It perfectly encompasses the obscurity of wordly love and fame in the larger scheme of reality! This poem was penned down when keats was 23. And almost like a biblical appreciation, keats ceased to be when he was 25 .