Comparing Keats And Longfellow

Our time runs out. Everyone knows that. But, certain people put more thought and stress into it than others. Based on their poems, Keats and Longfellow seem to be these types of people. Sonnets, “When I have Fears that I May Cease to Be” (Keats) and “Mezzo Cammin” (Longfellow) both show different ways in which the idea can be approached and accepted. While Keats creates an in-the-end-it-doesn’t- even-matter feeling, Longfellow’s tone makes the idea of looming death more manageable

The tone of Keats's poem is much different than that of Longfellow. Keats develops his ideas through statements. He uses “when” statements at the beginning of his quatrains to build the tone of the sonnet. The quatrains shift through ideas. As an example, the first

The reader can tell that the poems really lies in the final couplet, as no idea is completed up until that point. This allows the reader to have time to absorb what the speaker is saying about his

While Keats writes more of a Shakespearean style sonnet (three quatrains and a rhyming couplet) , Longfellow sticks to a sonnet closer to the Petrarchan model (Octave and sestet. Because of the way the rhyme scheme follows, the reader can assume that the ending will not be as forceful. Longfellow’s ideas are very similar to those of Keats. He discusses what he wanted to accomplish in life (“to build/ Some tower of song with lofty parapet”), to write a piece that will, presumably, last the test of time. Where Keats is very passive in his statements, the speaker blames himself, in the first line. Through the octave he accepts responsibility for the fact that he has lived half of his life without completing what he wanted too. The poem seems to soften after the speaker ends with the octave and begins the analogy of being “half-way up the hill.” An image is created of the city of “the Past” full with scenes of “smoking roofs, soft bells, and gleaming lights.” This language translates the idea of remembering pasts– rougher moments mixed with brighter ones– and how Longfellow views his. It gives the feeling that, while he may have yet to accomplish his life’s goal, his life has not been a waste. This feeling of acceptance continues through the final two lines of the sestet. Unlike the helpless feeling that Keats created, Longfellow gives the air of compliance with death. The final line, “The cataract of Death far thundering