English Literature / Unit 13 ENL 1217 short lesson, about 20 seconds
"When I Have Fears"
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The idea
"When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be," written in January eighteen eighteen, is a Shakespearean sonnet in which the young poet fears dying before he has written his poems or known love. In the couplet, love and fame sink to nothingness.
In practice
Fear of death before achievement.
Where people slip
The couplet dissolves the ambitions.
Your place on the trail
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