Similarities Between When I Have Fears And Mezzo Cammin

Keats’s “When I Have Fears” and Longfellow’s “Mezzo Cammin” are both poems that reflect different opinions of death and dreams. Longfellow’s poem draws comfort from the past, viewing the future as nothing but an ultimate unsettling demise. Keats’s views death in another way, seeing all of the things still to do, but being unable to truly reach his goals and desires. Although both poems reflect upon life and death Keats’s and Longfellow’s work both embody different perspectives on what’s truly left to live for.
Both poems open in a similar manner, realizing the inevitability of death. Keats fears that he “may cease to be” similarity Longfellow realizes that half his “life is gone”. But after the openings, both poems break off into the two very different perspectives of death.
He expresses this hope through the repetition of the word “Before” to express a desire to keep living. He later reflects this fear through the simile “rich garners the full ripened grain”. This statement allows the reader to understand that he does not feel succeeded at this point, and is wishing for a chance to achieve more and ripen as a person. But at the same time these desperate dreams for romance and writing are crushed by the inevitability that these events may never happen causing him to embody a sense helplessness and isolation within the world. If he were to die today he would sink in “nothingness” leaving his life worthless and