Although the poems use different rhyming techniques, similarities are found in their structures. Hardy writes in a style of his own creation but uses four of the six verses to highlight different examples of the woman's relationships with those left behind. The fifth is used as a building up of hope, and the final verse is used to show both the narrator and the reader how soon what we consider important and meaningful in life, can be diminished or forgotten in the lives and daily routines of those left behind. Keats, meanwhile, uses a standard sonnet form, using his three quatrains to each give a different example of what the man hopes to accomplish in life. The final rhyming couplet shows his acceptance of his life as small and insignificant as compared to the largeness of nature and the world as a whole;

Of the wide world I stand alone, and think

Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink."

The two characters come to the realization of there insignificance through completely different ways. The woman in Hardy's poem, seemed to be rather vain and probably considered her life to be unfulfilled. Unfortunately she was forced to realize the truth through the fore-mentioned events. On the other hand, the man in the Keats' poem is in awe of nature and the world around him. He is happy that he found love, and is able to come to terms with the fact that life will go on without him.

Because of the sad and unfortunate themes to both poems, I really didn't enjoy either of them all that much, but if I were to consider one to be my favourite over the other, it would have to be John Keats' "When I Have Fears". I found that the structure (the fact that it was written in the sonnet style), and the rhyming pattern, made it a smoother and easier read. I found Thomas Hardy's "Ah, Are You Digging On My Grave?" to be somewhat monotonous. I had a problem with keeping my attention during the poem and felt he could have got his point across in a much shorter or maybe less repetitive way.

These poems are written from different viewpoints; Hardy writes as a woman already in her grave, and Keats as a man still alive. Yet both narrators come to the conclusion that what we consider to

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Approximate Word count = 900
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)