John Keats When I Have Fears

From childbirth to adulthood one seeks happiness. This happiness can take form as toys, love, and companionship. However, one's desire for happiness is not without pain and suffering. For instance, Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress," depicts an unnamed speaker yearning to obtain a Mistress's love, but is overcome with anxiety due to his idea that life is short. Furthermore, in "When I have Fears," John Keats displays his desires to achieve fame and love, but becomes defeated upon realization that his dreams will remain as dreams and nothing more. Lastly, in Robert Browning's poem, "Porphyria's Lover," he conveys Porphyria's lover strangling Porphyria due to his desire to withhold the love he received from her. Although desire can encourage …show more content…
Through the use of imagery, he portrays himself on the shore pondering about his existence. In the beginning of Keats's poem, “When I have Fears,” he depicts his fear of an unaccomplished life. The dreams he desires consists of writing works that give him great fame and he also dreams of experiencing a great love; love that is on par with Cinderella's. In the end, he goes towards the shore "alone, and think / Till love and fame to nothingness do sink" (Keats 13-14). In this piece, Keats's use of imagery illustrates how people's desires can cause themselves to sink. In other words, he shows that regardless of how grand one's dreams are, it is hopeless if they are unreachable. Keats use of imagery paints himself drowning in his sea of unreachable dreams. His desires is what lead his fears to come to shore. For instance, Keats's dream was to be renown, but as a result of his grand dream, he lived his life in fear. In addition, this fear was not only caused by his dream for fame, but also due to his dream for love. Not any ordinary love, but love that goes beyond from what the eyes and heart conceive. One final poem that shows how desire negatively affects people is "Porphyria's