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 pil`d books, in charact'ry,

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 feel 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.

(Written - January 1818; Published - 1848)

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