MATTHEW BRIGGS
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MATTHEW BRIGGS

When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be  |  2010

3'45"
Baritone voice and piano

               In contrast to the other two Keats poems I have set, When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be is decidedly more tonal in its musical language.  John Keats, the poet, died at the age of 25 from tuberculosis.  He knew of his untimely demise, and this poem reflects on his fears of premature death.  In the first half he reflects on the poetry that would remain unwritten, that he would have left in him.  In the latter half he mourns over the love that he would never see because of his premature end.  He concludes with a timeless truth:  "Love and Fame to nothingness do sink."

                When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be

                When I have fears that I may cease to be 
                     Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
                Before high piled books, in charactry,
                     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 fairy 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.

                                                                              - John Keats (1818)

Jonathan Wall, baritone; Dr. Devon Howard, piano 
Derrada R. Rubell-Asbell, baritone; Taiko Pelick, piano

Contact

mhbriggs@att.net