John Keats1795-1821

“The great beauty of poetry is that it makes every thing every place interesting.”

John Keats to his brother George, 1819

Background Keats was an English Romantic poet. He was one of the main

figures of the second generation of Romantic poets along

with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his work

having been in publication for only four years before his

death.[1]Although his poems were not generally well received

by critics during his life, his reputation grew after his death, so

that by the end of the 19th century he had become one of

the most beloved of all English poets. He had a significant

influence on a diverse range of poets and writers.

Jorge Luis Borges stated that his first encounter with Keats

was the most significant literary experience of his life. The

poetry of Keats is characterised by sensual imagery, most

notably in the series of odes. Today his poems and letters are

some of the most popular and most analysed in English

literature.

Early LifeJohn Keats was born in Moorgate, London, on 31 October 1795, to Thomas and Frances Jennings Keats. There is no clear evidence of his exact birthplace.[3] Although Keats and his family seem to have marked his birthday on 29 October, baptism records give the date as the 31st. [4] He was the eldest of four surviving children; his younger siblings wereGeorge (1797–1841), Thomas (1799–1818), and Frances Mary "Fanny" (1803–1889) who eventually married Spanish author Valentín Llanos Gutiérrez. [5] Another son was lost in infancy. His father first worked as a hostler[6] at the stables attached to the Swan and Hoop inn, an establishment he later managed and where the growing family lived for some years. Keats believed that he was born at the inn, a birthplace of humble origins, but there is no evidence to support his belief.[4] The Globe pub now occupies the site (2012), a few yards from the modern-day Moorgate station.[7] He was baptised at St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate and sent to a local dame school as a child

Early PoetryKeats' daring and bold style earned him nothing but criticism from two of England's

more revered publications, Blackwood's Magazine and theQuarterly Review. The attacks

were an extension of heavy criticism lobbed at Hunt and his cadre of young poets. The most

damning of those pieces had come from Blackwood's, whose piece, "On the Cockney School

of Poetry," shook Keats and made him nervous to publish "Endymion." Keat’s hesitation was

warranted. Upon its publication the lengthy poem received a lashing from the more

conventional poetry community. One critic called the work, the "imperturbable driveling

idiocy of Endymion." Others found the four-book structure and its general flow hard to follow

and confusing.

The Mature PoetIn the summer of 1818, Keats took a walking tour in Northern England and Scotland. He returned home later that year to care for his brother, Tom, who'd fallen deeply ill with tuberculosis. Keats, who around this time fell in love with a woman named Fanny Brawne, continued to write. He'd proven prolific for much of the past year. His work included his first Shakespearean sonnet, "When I have fears that I may cease to be," which was published in January 1818. Two months later, Keats published "Isabella," a poem that tells the story of a woman who falls in love with a man beneath her social standing, instead of the man her family has chosen her to marry. The work was based on a story from Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio, and it's one Keats himself would grow to dislike.Keats' writing also revolved around a poem he called "Hyperion," an ambitious Romantic piece inspired by Greek myth that told the story of the Titans' despondency after their losses to the Olympians.But the death of Keats' brother halted his writing. He finally returned to the work in late 1819, rewriting his unfinished poem with a new title, "The Fall of Hyperion," which would go unpublished until more than three decades after Keats' death.

'John Keats alias Junkets': Keats's signature from a letter to Leigh Hunt, 1817

More on Fanny Brawne

It was seven years after her death before Fanny's identity became known. Though she had told her children of her romance with Keats, and shown them her collection of his books and love letters, she had also made them promise to never tell their father. But when Louis Lindon died in 1872, Fanny's children (led primarily by Herbert) were finally able to profit from their mother's story.And profit they did. Though Keats had died in 1821, just 25 years old and largely unknown, the resulting years had witnessed a belated recognition of his genius. He was now considered among the greatest English poets. His works sold briskly and, in 1848, the first biography of Keats was published. Written by Richard Monckton Milnes with the aid of several of Keats's friends, it nevertheless angered many others. Like Percy Shelley's elegy 'Adonais', Milnes's biography created an image of Keats as a sickly dreamer done to death by bad reviews. It was a sentimental portrait and psychologically false. And though it mentioned Keats's engagement to a young lady, it never named the lady in question. Fanny had witnessed the growth of Keats's reputation; perhaps she had read the numerous books which eulogized him. But she never revealed herself, nor took a noteworthy interest in his life. Her husband knew only that she and the poet had met as neighbors in Hampstead. Fanny never told him otherwise. But she had kept Keats's love letters to her, over three dozen of them; many were mere notes, others lengthy chronicles of his devotion, others jealous ramblings which revealed a heretofore new (and, to his admirers, unpleasant) aspect of Keats's character. These letters would later be celebrated as among the most beautiful ever written.

Continued Keats's letters to Fanny Brawne are among the most famous love letters ever written. As next door neighbors, they exchanged numerous short notes, and occasionally more passionate ones. None of Fanny's letters to Keats survive. From his, however, it seems he was often unsettled by her behavior and uncertain of her affection. His illness brought them closer; when he left for Rome, they were engaged and deeply in love.“My dearest Girl,This moment I have set myself to copy some verses out fair. I cannot proceed with any degree of content. I must write you a line or two and see if that will assist in dismissing you from my Mind for ever so short a time. Upon my Soul I can think of nothing else - The time is passed when I had power to advise and warn you again[s]t the unpromising morning of my Life - My love has made me selfish. I cannot exist without you - I am forgetful of every thing but seeing you again - my Life seems to stop there - I see no further. You have absorb'd me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I was dissolving - I should be exquisitely miserable without the hope of soon seeing you. I should be afraid to separate myself far from you. My sweet Fanny, will your heart never change? My love, will it? I have no limit now to my love - You note came in just here - I cannot be happier away from you - 'T is richer than an Argosy of Pearles. Do not threat me even in jest. I have been astonished that Men could die Martyrs for religion - I have shudder'd at it - I shudder no more - I could be martyr'd for my Religion - Love is my religion - I could die for that - I could die for you. My Creed is Love and you are its only tenet - You have ravish'd me away by a Power I cannot resist: and yet I could resist till I saw you; and even since I have seen you I have endeavoured often "to reason against the reasons of my Love." I can do that no more - the pain would be too great - My Love is selfish - I cannot breathe without you.Yours for everJohn Keats”

Most Famous WorksPoems (1817) Endymion (1818) "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (1819) "Ode to a Nightingale" (1819) "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" (1819) "On Autumn" (1820) Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems (1820)

Silhouette of John Keats by Marianne Hunt.

This silhouette was made in 1820, while Keats recuperated at Leigh and Marianne Hunt's home.

In 1819 Keats contracted tuberculosis. His health deteriorated quickly. Soon after his last volume of poetry was published, he ventured off to Italy with his close friend, the painter Joseph Severn, on the advice of his doctor, who had told him he needed to be in a warmer climate for the winter.The trip marked the end of his romance with Fanny Brawne. His health issues and his own dreams of becoming a successful writer had stifled their chances of ever getting married. Keats arrived in Rome in November of that year and for a brief time started to feel better. But within a month, he was back in bed, suffering from a high temperature. The last few months of his life proved particularly painful for the poet.His doctor in Rome placed Keats on a strict diet that consisted of a single anchovy and a piece of bread per day in order to limit the flow of blood to the stomach. He also induced heavy bleeding, resulting in Keats suffering from both a lack of oxygen and a lack of food. Keats' agony was so severe that at one point he pressed his doctor and asked him, "How long is this posthumous existence of mine to go on?" Keats' death came on February 23, 1821. It's believed he was clutching the hand of his friend, Joseph Severn, at the time of his passing

silhouette of John Keats in 1819 by Charles Brown;

this was given as a gift to Keat’s sister.

Final Years

silhouette of John Keats in 1819 by Charles Brown;

this was given as a gift to Keat’s sister.

Assignment Read Keats's poems in our anthology. Summarize, evaluate, and interpret. Due date is October 3rd.

As always, submit your best work.