Sonnet: '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 pilèd books, in charactry,

      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 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.