When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be

By John Keats (1795-1821)

John Keats was a prolific British poet of the early 19th century. He was a surgeon who died at twenty five of tuberculosis, but still breathed fresh insight, wit, and power into the popular poetic forms of his time. We may however, disagree slightly on the best way to handle a panic attack.

"When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be"

When I have fears that I may cease to be
   Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,
Before high-pilèd books, in charactery,
   Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starred 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.

“On the shore of the wide world I stand alone, and think”