WHEN I HAVE FEARS
When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has glean’d my teaming brain Before high piled books, in charactery Hold like rich garners the full ripen’d grain When I behold , upon the night’s starr’d face Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance And think that 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.