Literary Devices in When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be

Keats’s depiction of the “wide world” as a shore, presumably overlooking a large body of water, is a metaphor, with the water serving as the endless opportunities of creation and possibility. The speaker concludes the poem on a metaphor that places his own thoughts of “love and fame” in the context of the larger world, emphasizing their transience.

The penultimate line of the poem features alliteration, or the repetition of consonant sounds in rapid succession. Repeating the softness of the letter “w,” as opposed to harsher consonants, leaves the reader with a feeling of wistfulness as the speaker grapples with the fear of dying too soon.

The em dash (—) that breaks up this line is an example of a caesura. A caesura is a pause within a line of poetry, typically in the form of punctuation. Keats’s choice of punctuation is notable because it interrupts the poem’s rhythm and calls attention to its final image: the anxious poet standing alone on the symbolic “shore/ Of the wide world,” fearing that he is running out of time.

Keats makes use of assonance, or the repetition of vowels that have the same sound, in the words “shadows,” “magic,” “hand,” and “chance.” Assonance reinforces the poem’s steady rhythm while also developing its rich and highly romantic imagery.

This line features personification, or the attribution of human qualities to nonhuman objects or entities. Describing the night as a being with a “starred face” develops both the poem’s vivid imagery and its romantic, wistful tone in a way that is memorable for the reader.

Keats employs a simile by comparing the “high-pilèd books” to “rich garners,” or granaries. A simile, which compares two things using the words “like” or “as,” intensifies the impact of images and concepts in ways that can uncover important meanings in a text. In this comparison, Keats develops the poem’s opening metaphor by associating early death with symbolic starvation—for death would mean that his potential future books, or granaries, remain empty, and empty granaries imply famine, scarcity, and lack.

Keats uses anaphora, or the repetition of words at the beginning of successive lines, to emphasize the emotional experience of his fears. By repeating the word “before” in lines two and three, the speaker implies that death would be premature because there is so much more to write.

Keats employs an extended metaphor that compares writing poetry to harvesting, or gleaning, grain. A metaphor is a device comparing two different things by implying or stating that they are the same. An extended metaphor unfolds throughout an entire text and often uses smaller metaphors for reinforcement. In line two, the speaker’s pen represents a harvesting tool and the thoughts in his “teeming brain” represent grain.