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STYLE ANALYSIS OF "WHEN I HAVE FEARS THAT I MAY CEASE TO BE"John Keats was an English poet, born in 1795. He was one of the well-known poets of second generation of Romanticism Era. “When I Have Fears I May Cease To Be” is an Elizabethan Sonnet written by him. He has written it soon after his close study about Shakespeare’s Works. In the poem, persona talks about his desires, expectations, dreams, and the feelings he wants to taste, but he fears that his lifetime won’t be long enough to achieve and write them all. The poem continues by him, trying to find a way out of that fear, and his solution. He perfectly describes his “fear” with his style of giving life to words.
The Sonnet is a traditional Shakespearean Sonnet, written in iambic pentameter. It is end-rhymed in the form of “a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g-” It has fourteen lines, made up of three quatrains and a final couplet. As in usual Shakespearean Sonnets, problem is explained in quatrains and a solution is found in the couplet, Keats uses the same passage. The problem in the Keats’ sonnet is worrying, fears and desires (love and fame) - the feelings eating the heart of persona- takes place in the quatrains. He clearly states that he has a lot to write, but fears that he will not have enough time to write them all. In the last quatrain, he goes in the deep in his mind, inspiring from nature. As a solution in the couplet, he realizes that there are greater problems in the world compare to his fear. The path, sonnet follows, is a process used in Romantic poems which poets seek a way out of complicated situations. Keats combines the structure of sonnet with the formula of Romantic Poetry. In the explanation part, the fear in his heart gets a shape with the words. In turning part, he finds the cure in the nature. In the conclusion, he finds his own solution. The structure of the sonnet, blended with the breeze of Romanticism, showed a way out from the theme “fear” and how find that way. Keats has a strong usage of figurative language, which helps theme “fear” to become alive, and be felt. He is the one who used the term “negative capability” for the first time. Negative capability by his words means “...When man is capable of being in uncertainties. Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” He dwelled in the uncertainties of life without trying to make sense of it all. The effects of negative capability are seen in the lines 7-8 “And think that I may never live to trace/ Their shadows with the magic hand of chance” He benefits from lots of metaphors to tell his feelings as he has done in the line 6 “Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance”. Love becomes something that can be written on the night sky. In the line 11, love is stated as “faery power”. A hyperbole is reflected by a help of metaphor. Not as much as metaphors, but similes are also used in the sonnet. The line 4 “Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain”, compares language to wheat in a grain bin. Personification of the night with the feature of turning its starts into a face, creates an image of persona interacting with the night as it was a real person. The first line of couplet “Of the wide world I stand alone” helps readers to draw a picture of his position in the world, as a strong example of his figurative language. The colorfulness of Keats language, a variety of devices make readers look into “fear” from different sights. “When I Have Fears I May Cease To Be” is a mirror of Keats’ feelings traveling in between his thoughts. Understanding what the fear gnawing from inside is, how to approach it, and finding a path to solving, have formed an unique shape with Keats’s style. |
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