Helen Keats Sonnet Analysis

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The lyric can tell a story; it can convey an emotion. This doesn’t necessarily mean on a completely personal level. (EHH) It can be something set to music, something related specifically to the author who wrote it. It doesn’t always pertain to the listener. Lyric can refer to the words being sung but also the words in the poem. The lyric can portray what is going on in a writer’s head without necessarily portraying any sort of story. Keats, in his many sonnets, didn’t always tell stories: some were just letters to his friends or he even wrote one that had an elegy-tone to it for his grandmother after her death. In a way that the lyric doesn’t always tell a story is just like how it doesn’t always have to be set to music.
A sonnet can be something …show more content…

Looking at Keats’ “When I have fears that I may cease to be,” one can see why Vendler’s controversial claim works—and does not work—in relation to this sonnet. Glancing at the sonnet briefly and not dwelling deep into the meaning, realistically anyone could claim they could voice it. They may not take the time to understand its meaning, utteranes, or what makes it a sonnet. They may feel as if they can relate to what would happen if they were to die young and not accomplish all they thought they should. While it was personal to him, Keats wasn not, nor the last, to contemplate the fact that he will die without accomplishing all he could. It’s possibly for a reader to give voice to the sonnet if they are experiencing similar fears. Many fear death at some point or another and can “fear when [they] cease to be.” But Keats’ poem goes far more indepth thant the cliché fear of death. He fears more so what would happen if eh died before he accomplished all he could—“glean’d [his] teeming brain.” He mentions his fears of not achieving greatness through his writing or even with love. It is the fact that these fears were specific to the speaker. These were fears specific to Keats. He wrote the sonnet as an outlet for his fears of his life coming to an end and what would come of it. But when looking at the sonnet from a farther away perspective, it’s possible for a reader to be able to utter the sonnet as their own worries. But this does not mean that sonnets are made to be voice able by all. Some, maybe, but it depends on the context, content, speaker, author, and reader that give proof to Vendler’s

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