John Keats’ “When I Have Fears” and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Mezzo Cammin” both examine a life that is unsatisfactory. The differences in personification, diction, and imagery shows that Longfellow’s poem is less optimistic about life than Keats’ poem. Even though both Longfellow and Keats use personification to show fears of a short life, Keats’ personification praises the beauty in life, while Longfellow’s focuses on life’s hideousness. In “When I Have Fears,” the narrator fears that his pen will not fully grasp his “teeming brain”, and that “high-pilled books” will be left unread. The narrator is not afraid of death, but rather of the inevitable fact that he will die before he can truly appreciate all life has to offer. In “Mezzo
