What is the theme of the poem " When I Have Fears" by John(Johnathan) Keats?

Question

Plus, what picture do you see in this poem?

Answer 1

In the sonnet, the Speaker first discusses three things that he is concerned with missing in life. In the first quatrain, the Speaker describes his fear of dying before being able to glean his "teeming brain" of all the poetry within it. The second quatrain continues the same theme, using a metaphor of tracing the shadows of clouds to describe his fear of dying before writing great poetry. In the third quatrain, he talks about his fears of death robbing him of his love, the "fair creature of an hour". This is believed to have been Keats' fiancé, whom he was secretly engaged to.In the final couplet of the poem, the Speaker tells the reader that upon considering these fears, he realizes that in the end the fact is simply that he is going to die, and all of these other things- fame, poetry, greatness and love, "to nothingness do sink"- in other words, they become worthless to him if he is going to die anyway. Also in the final couplet Keats says 'then on the shore of the wide world,' which suggests that Keats is on the edge between life and death, because at the time he knew he would soon die of tuberculosis.

as for the picture...

first parts of the poem as feats the Speaker might not accomplish in life, but instead of the "fair creature of an hour" being Keats fiancé, it is interpreted as the night itself. Keats could possibly be speaking of the nights entrancing and awe-inspiring beauty that captivates and sends the Speaker into their thoughtful mood.

Answer 2

This poem falls into two major thought groups:
Keats expresses his fear of dying young in the first thought unit, lines 1-12. He fears that he will not fulfill himself as a writer (lines 1-8) and that he will lose his beloved (lines 9-12).
Keats resolves his fears by asserting the unimportance of love and fame in the concluding two and a half lines of this sonnet.
The first quatrain (four lines) emphasizes both how fertile his imagination is and how much he has to express; hence the imagery of the harvest, e.g., "glean'd," "garners," "full ripen'd grain." Subtly reinforcing this idea is the alliteration of the key words "glean'd," garners," and "grain," as well as the repetition of r sounds in "charactery," "rich," "garners,"ripen'd," and "grain.". A harvest is, obviously, fulfillment in time, the culmination which yields a valued product, as reflected in the grain being "full ripen'd." Abundance is also apparent in the adjectives "high-piled" and "rich." The harvest metaphor contains a paradox (paradox is a characteristic of Keats's poetry and thought): Keats is both the field of grain (his imagination is like the grain to be harvested) and he is the harvester (writer of poetry).

The poet's concern with time (not enough time to fulfill his poetic gift and love) is supported by the repetition of "when" at the beginning of each quatrain and by the shortening of the third quatrain. Keats attributes two qualities to love: (1) it has the ability to transform the world for the lovers ("faery power"), but of course fairies are not real, and their enchantments are an illusion and (2) love involves us with emotion rather than thought ("I feel" and "unreflecting love").

Reflecting upon his feelings, which the act of writing this sonnet has involved, Keats achieves some distancing from his own feelings and ordinary life, so he is able to reach a resolution. He thinks about the human solitariness ("I stand alone") and human insignificance (the implicit contrast betwen his lone self and "the wide world"). The shore is a point of contact, the threshold between two worlds or conditions, land and sea; so Keats is crossing a threshold, from his desire for fame and love to accepting their unimportance and ceasing to fear and yearn.

Answer 3

the theme of the poem is unfulfilled desires, keats feared that he may not be able to write poetry because of the brevity of life he had. so he feared that his dreams won t be accomplished if he may die