When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be

by John Keats

When I have fears that I may cease to be
      Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books in charact'ry
      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.