When I have Fears that I may Cease to Be...

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high piled books, in charact'ry,
Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd 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 may 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.
- Keats