3.3.1. First Quatrain
In the first quatrain, the speaker describes his fear of dying before being able to glean his "teeming brain" of all the poetry within it.
3.3.2. Second Quatrain
The second quatrain continues the same theme, using a metaphor of tracing the shadows of clouds to describe his fear of dying before writing great poetry.
3.3.3. Third Quatrain
In the third quatrain, he talks about his fears of death robbing him of his love, the "fair creature of an hour". This is believed to have been Keats' fiancé, whom he was secretly engaged to.
3.3.4. Couplet
In the final couplet of the poem, the speaker tells the reader that upon considering these fears, he realizes that in the end the fact is simply that he is going to die, and all of these other things- fame, poetry, greatness and love, "to nothingness do sink"- in other words, they become worthless to him if he is going to die anyway. Also in the final couplet Keats says “then on the shore of the wide world,” which suggests that Keats is on the edge between life and death, because at the time he knew he would soon die.
3.4. Style
This poem is written as a liric poetry, which means that it is a short poem with one speaker - not necessarily the poet - who expresses thought and feeling. The emotion is or seems personal In classical Greece, the lyric was a poem written to be sung, accompanied by a lyre. Though it is more often applied to Odes, here is used for a Sonnet. A sonnet is a lyric poem consisting of fourteen lines. In English, generally the two basic kinds of sonnets are the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet and the Shakespearean or Elizabethan sonnet. Keats has written a Shakespearean sonnet, that consists of three quatrains - four lines each - and a concluding couplet - two lines - .
The meter of this poem is Iambic, which means a foot consisting of an unaccented and accented syllable. Shakespeare often uses iambic, for example the beginning of Hamlet's speech - the accented syllables are italicized - , "To be or not to be. Listen for the accents in this line from Marlowe, "Come live with me and be my love." English seems to fall naturally into iambic patterns, for it is the most common meter in English.
3.4.1. Communicative Structure
The text is written in 1st person - When I have fears ... - Before my pen ... my teeming brain ... But it is not clear if he is adressing to the reader, or if it is a private confession of his inner feelings, his deepest fears; Keats expresses his fear of dying young in the first thought unit, lines 1-12. He fears that he will not fulfill himself as a writer;
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charact'ry,
and that he will lose his beloved;
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love
Nevertheless, as a inner thought he changes his mind as he writes, and concludes resolving his fears by asserting the unimportance of love and fame in the concluding two and a half lines of this sonnet:
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think,
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.
We have here an intimate poem, from the core of the poet, adressed to anyone in particular but to which people can emphatize.
3.4.2. Cohesion
Keats does not use very much coordinated structures in his poem; the conjunction “and” only appears in lines 7 and 9, meanwhile juxtaposition by commas and semicolons are used throught out the text in almost every line to pause and emphasize the tragical feeling. Lines 1, 7, 9, 11, and 12 are the only ones which do not have a comma or semicolon at the end; and in all the poem there is only one full stop, at the end of line 14. Subordination is also present in this poem, mainly represented by “when” in lines 1 and 5, and “then” in line 12. He uses direct speech in order to create an intimate atmosphere and a relaxed climax with the reader, as anguished as the poem is.
3.4.3. Lexis and Semantics
Line 2. glean: in this poem, Keats is using the meaning of collecting patiently or picking out laboriously.
teeming: plentiful, overflowing, or produced in large quantities.
Line 3. charactery: printing or handwriting.
Line 4. garners: granaries or storehouses for grain.
Line 6. high romance: high = of an elevated or exalted character or quality; romance = medieval narrative of chivalry, also an idealistic fiction which tends not to be realistic.
3.4.4. Rhythm and Rhyme
This poem has the classical pattern in rhyme: A, B, A, B... in the 3 quartets, until the couplet which rhymes A, A. It’s a End Rhyme, the most common amongst the rhytmic patterns, and which occurs at the end of two or more lines. It is a true rhyme; the sounds are nearly identical:
B - ... my teeming brain,
A
B - ... full-ripen'd grain;
A - ... and think,
A - ... do sink.
Except in the 1st and 3rd lines where we have a weak rhyme, also called slant, oblique, approximate, or half rhyme, that refers to words with similar but not identical sounds:
A - ... cease to be
B
A - ... in charact'ry
In the first quatrain we find the imagery of the harvest, e.g., "glean'd," "garners," "full ripen'd grain." He reinforces this idea with the alliteration - repetition of the same sound at the beginning of a word to emphasize - of the key words "glean'd," garners," and "grain," as well as the repetition of “r” sounds in "charactery," "rich," "garners,"ripen'd," and "grain.". A harvest means his fulfillment in time, the culmination which yields a valued product, reflected in the grain being "full ripen'd." Abundance is also apparent in the adjectives "high-piled" and "rich." The harvest metaphor contains a paradox - a statement whose two parts seem contradictory yet make sense with more thought to attract the reader’s attention and gives emphasis -, very characteristic in Keats's poetry: Keats is both the field of grain - his imagination is like the grain to be harvested - and he is the harvester - writer of poetry - .
In the next quatrain he sees the world as full of material - the beauty of nature "night's starr'd face” – line 5 - and the larger meanings he perceives beneath the appearance of nature or physical phenomena "Huge cloudy symbols" – line 6 - - that he could transform into poetry – with "the magic hand” – line 8 - .
In the third quatrain he turns to love. As the "fair creature of an hour," – line 9 - his beloved is short-lived just as, by implication, love is. The quatrain itself parallels the idea of little time, in being only three and a half lines, rather than the usual four lines of a Shakespearean sonnet; the effect in reading is of a slight speeding-up of time. How important is love compared to poetry for Keats in this poem? Does the fact that he devotes fewer lines to love than to poetry suggest anything about their relative importance to him? Does this lines have too much feeling within them to make the reader experience the loss as much or more than if they were more?
The poet's concern with time, which is not enough time to fulfill his poetic gift and love, is supported by the repetition of "when" at the beginning of each quatrain and by the shortening of the third quatrain. Keats attributes two qualities to love: it has the ability to transform the world for the lovers "faery power" – line 11 - , and involves us with emotion rather than thought: "I feel" – line 9 - and "unreflecting love" – line 12 - .
4. Comment on When I Have Fears the I May Cease to Be’
I have chosen this poem because whenever I read it the sense of angst and despair is present, gazing at the dark shadow of death, waiting patiently for the final victory, that owns for the eternal times. And no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, death is capricious, and only if destiny provides, you will have time enough to love and achieve recognition.
5. Conclusion
Keats can be interpreted throught this poem as the poet of melancholy that convined sensuality and fear; As we read we are focused on his vivid, concrete imagery; on his portrayal of the passionate; and on his immersion in the here and now. He can be praised for his seriousness and thoughfulness, for his dealing with difficult human conflicts, and for his impassioned mental pursuit of truth. Keats's important poems are related to, or grow directly out of inner conflicts. Keats often associated love and pain both in his life and in his poetry.
In this poem we have the perfect example of the romantic poet; a tortured soul, fearing the unavoidable, praying for more time to show what he would be able to. Wishing the impossible. Seeking for a chance to love.
多读读上面的赏析对理解和欣赏John Keats 的这首诗是有好处的，对翻译也很有帮助。 |
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发表于 2010-2-27 12:10:00
