Compare And Contrast When I Have Fears And Mezzo Cammin

Death is inevitable. With the impending ending comes a phase of self reflection and the questioning of past actions, or lack thereof. In both poems, “When I Have Fears” and “Mezzo Cammin,” the speakers recount the passage of their time, puzzled at how they had let opportunity slip away from their grasp. Yet it is in their outlooks on how to death with this revelation that differ. Keats offers a mournful and despondent outlook on the rest of his days, fearing that he has already carved out a meaningless existence, and ready to give up; whereas Keats presents an individual who has lost a lot due to his circumstances, but still perseveres and keeps his ground, choosing to believe in a brighter future in the coming of a new season. Though both poems are riddled with simple and intelligible
In regards to “When I Have Fears,” there seems to be a more positive aura. As the speaker contemplates his demise, he ponders all he had missed in the world, like never living to touch the “Huge cloudy symbols of romance” as he looks up into the infinite sky. He describes the love as “unreflecting”, leading into the idea that he has felt love, but it has never been reciprocated, hence it is described as a “faery power”, mythical and magical in theory, but ultimately made up and not real. In the last couplets of the poem, he releases all of his thoughts of “love and fame,” letting them sink down into nothingness; forever standing alone in the world. When looking at “Mezzo Cammin,” it is undeniable that the speaker also wonders of death, but it is in the speaker’s attitude that the two poems contrast. Suddenly,