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.
Keats’s views his future in a rather reluctant way, hoping that he has enough time to succeed in the many tasks he looks forward to in life.
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
unfulfilled.
Longfellow believes that the moments in the past has an overshadowing effect on the future, scaling down events to nothingness in the grade scheme of life. His yearning to fulfill the “aspirations” of his “youth”. Longfellow later emphasizes the lack of feeling in his youth through the repetition of the words “not” and “nor” putting a negative connotation on the text and putting an emphasis on the void. He blames these setbacks on “sorrow” and “care”, expressing that these harsh emotions are keeping him from future accomplishments. However, Longfellow views death as inevitable, watching life get consumed by the past. Life is “A city in the twilight dim” the past is ever-expanding and death is ever-approaching.
Both poems leave something to be desired, and ultimately speak to the reader to do more and achieve more before death sneaks up from behind the corner. Through the use of language, similes, and repetition, both authors are able to convey a complex feeling of desire in order to speak word of warning to the reader. Although both poems are different they ultimately provide a similar meaning conveyed through the text, live life in the now. Both authors express that temporariness of life and the need to do something, whether this be the rewards of love and fame or the feeling of success in life. This is the message these authors convey together; life is too short to waste.