John Keats

When I have fears that I may cease to be Meaning: The speaker fears dying before completing his life's work.

Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain, Meaning: His unwritten thoughts are imagined as grain waiting to be gathered.

Before high-pilèd books, in charactery, Meaning: Books are pictured as tall stacks storing that harvest.

Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain; Meaning: The image suggests poetry not yet brought into finished form.

When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face, Meaning: The night sky appears full of meaningful signs.

Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance, Meaning: Those clouds hint at grand stories and imagination.

And think that I may never live to trace Meaning: The speaker worries he may never fully capture them.

Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance; Meaning: Chance and creativity may run out before he can write them.

And when I feel, fair creature of an hour, Meaning: He then turns from art to human love.

That I shall never look upon thee more, Meaning: He fears he may never see the beloved again.

Never have relish in the faery power Meaning: That would also mean losing the magic of spontaneous love.

Of unreflecting love;—then on the shore Meaning: Love here feels dreamlike and precious.

Of the wide world I stand alone, and think Meaning: So he stands alone before the vast world.

Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink. Meaning: In the end, both love and fame seem small against nothingness.