THE SHORE OF THE WIDE WORLD

A poem by John Keats

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charact’ry,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love!—then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think,
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.^[3]-

This is my favorite poem. In fact, I have it memorized. Every time I read it, I think of another facet of my life that makes it even more relevant. Today, I think of my father and how he must have seen his life during and after WWII. Notice the insignia on his sleeve, he was a corpsman and so war must have truly been hell.

I also think of the times we are in now- of the 60s, and how mortal we are, how rational and sane we can and cannot be. THE SHORE OF THE WIDE WORLD  is the title to my next book.