Biography Category
Name :
John Keats
Date :
Views :
483
Category :
Birth Date :
01/01/1970
Birth Place :
Not Available
Death Date :
February 23, 1821
Not Available
[b]Keats And His Family Background[/b][br /]
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Tracing John Keats' lineage, we find that he came from a middle-class background. His father, Thomas Keats, was the head ostler in a livery stable owned by Mr John Jennings. Thomas married Jennings's daughter, Frances. Mr Jennings soon retired leaving the management of the stable to his son-in-law. Thus John Keats (his three brothers and one sister included) was born at the stable, by the sign of The Swan–and–Hoop, on Finsbury pavement, facing the then open Lower Moorfields, on October 31, 1795. By the time the youngest child, Frances Mary was born in 1803, the family had shifted to a house in Graven Street, City Road.[br /]
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Though coming from humble backgrounds, both Thomas and Frances were quite intelligent and clever. Especially Frances, was a understanding and affectionate parent. The family was a very close-knit one, especially the bond that John and his mother and the brothers shared.[br /]
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[b]Education[/b][br /]
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Aspiring to give the best possible education to their children, the parents chose Rev John Clarke’s School at Enfield, a well-reputed school located among pleasant atmosphere. John started going to school in 1803. In the very next year, that is in 1804, Thomas met with an accident. He fell from his horse as he was riding home one night from Southgate. The fall killed him (April 16, 1804). After a hasty marriage of Mrs Keats’ to one William Rawlings, and an equally hasty separation the Keats family went to live with the recently widowed Mrs Jennings at Edmonton.[br /]
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Mr Jennings was quite comfortably off, financially. Apart from a number of legacies, which yielded a fixed income to his daughter, he had put a sum of £ 1,000 in trust for the Keats children. And so the next four or five years passed quite pleasantly and comfortably for John.[br /]
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In school John was spirited and generous, quarrelsome and forgiving, handsome and lovable, and a natural leader. He was passionate in both tears and laughter. But beneath this facade he concealed (except from his brothers) a streak of painful sensibility, subjecting him to moods of unreasonable suspicion and self-tormenting melancholy.[br /]
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The Keats brothers had always been close to each other. George, the second brother, was quite like John, except that he was less impulsive, bigger and stronger. Tom, the youngest brother was ‘delicate’ from childhood and was always protected by his two elder brothers. Their sister, then a child, was also bonded by the strong family sentiments.[br /]
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[b]The Book-lover[/b][br /]
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Initially, Keats showed no signs of being intellectual or artistic. He was methodical and orderly in what he did, but not studious. It was only when he was 14–15 years old, that he diverted his energy to studies. He soon became so engrossed in the pleasures of reading that he would always have a book in his hands – even before school and during play-hours. He preferred to read, rather than to play and won several literature-prizes in school. He soon exhausted the school library, reading every book of history, travel and fiction. Mythology was something that he enjoyed tremendously. During this period he took upon himself to translate Aeneid from Latin into English prose.[br /]
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[b]Death Of Mother[/b][br /]
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But trouble soon followed. John’s mother, Frances, already disabled by chronic rheumatism, fell ill and finally died in February 1810. John’s devotion to her was very much evident and he would not allow anyone else to attend to her, give her medicines or cook her food. He would sit with her for the entire night, reading novels to her.[br /]
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[b]Ready To Face Life[/b][br /]
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Within a few months of Frances’s death, Mrs Jennings executed a deed thereby putting her now orphaned grand-children under the care of two guardians. Most of her property was now to be held in trust by the guardians, till the children came of age. Although Mrs Jennings survived the execution of the deed by about four years, Mr Abbey and his co-trustee undertook the responsibilities and the management of the trust. By the end of 1810, John was withdrawn from school and readied for life. He was just 15 when he was apprenticed for five years to a surgeon, Mr Hammond, at Edmonton.[br /]
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The study of medicine did not lessen his passion for literature and whenever he could spare time; he would go to visit his friend Cowden Clarke, at his old school in Enfield. They would exchange and read books and discuss them. Around this time, he had finished his translation of Aeneid.
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[b]Keats : The Poet[/b][br /]
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But he had still not written or attempted to write any poetry. Then one day, Cowden Clarke introduced John to Spenser. They read the Epithalamium in the afternoon and Keats carried The Faerie Queen with him when he went back. Keats was delighted with this new world opened up to him. Charles Brown, one of Keats’ many friends recalls, "Though born to be a poet, he was ignorant of his birthright until he had completed his 18th year. It was The Faerie Queen that awakened his genius. In Spenser’s fairyland he was enchanted, breathed in a new world and became another being; till, enamored by the stanza, he attempted to imitate it and succeeded." This, his earliest attempt, The Imitation Of Spenser was his first volume of poems and "it is peculiarly interesting to those acquainted with his history."[br /]
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Secretly and shyly, Keats began writing sonnets and other verses, on various subjects, including his political impulse. But it was not until 1815 that he showed anything he had written to anybody, even his friend and confidante, Cowden Clarke.[br /]
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[b]Study Of Medicine[/b][br /]
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Keats had more than a year left of his apprenticeship, when he quarreled with Mr Hammond in the summer of 1814. Subsequently he came to London. He was about 19 years old. He continued his studies in London and enrolled as a student in the hospital of St Thomas and Guy, which were united for teaching purposes.[br /]
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John was a very attentive student. He attended his hospital and did his work regularly. He cleared his examination as licentiate at Apothecaries’ Hall with credit on July 25, 1816 and was appointed a dresser at Guy’s under Mr Lucas. His performance there was good and he was able to assist in the operations without problem. But by 1817 he was thinking more and more about leaving the medical profession and devoting himself to a literary life. The muse was steadily luring this ‘cheerful, crotchety rhymester’. He confessed, "the other day, during lecture there came a sunbeam into the room and with it a whole troop of creatures floating in the ray; and I was off with them to Oberon and fairy-land." For quite sometime now, his friends included young men of literary tastes and occupations. His verses were no longer kept hidden. They were freely passed around among friends and often attracted the notice and approval of writers of good repute.[br /]
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[b]Poetry - His Passion[/b][br /]
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By the time he was 21 years of age, John Keats had decided to opt for the muse. Mr Abbey, his guardian, was not very happy with this decision, but Keats was not to be swayed. There was no formal quarrel between them and Mr Abbey continued to manage the money even though Keats had come of age.[br /]
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Gradually Keats’ circle of literary friends grew. He would discuss and compare verses, always advocating for beauty as against the interest of action or passion. By nature, Keats was gentle, pleasant, steady, and well behaved. As one of his friends had observed, "his absolute devotion to poetry prevented his having any other taste or indulging in any vice."[br /]
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[b]His Friends : His Mentors[/b][br /]
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By now Cowden Clarke had also left Enfield and settled in London. The two friends met often, reading together as eagerly as before. One of the first books they thus attacked was Chapman’s Homer. After a night’s study, the next morning Clarke received the famous sonnet, On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer, written by Keats. Cowden Clarke was also instrumental in introducing Leigh Hunt to Keats.[br /]
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Hunt, along with his brothers, edited and published Examiner, a daily working towards improvement of English journalism. It was around 1816 to 1621, Hunt was the strongest intellectual influence on Keats. John Keats soon became a frequent and intimate visitor to the Hunt house. He admired Hunt and his 'extraordinary capacity for forming friendship'. They shared their interests and appreciation for poetry.[br /]
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They accompanied each other in prison too. Both the friends were convicted for using libel language for Prince of Wales. They called him, '... a violator of his word, a libertine over head and cars in debt and disgrace, a despiser of domestic ties, the companion of gamblers,...' etc. Both Keats and Hunt were imprisoned for two years from January 1813 to January 1815.[br /]
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Leigh Hunt also introduced Keats to a number of congenial spirits, prominent among them were John Hamilton Reynolds, the painter Haydon and the poet P B Shelley. He was also friendly with a Miss Georgiana Wylie, to whom George Keats was attached. Among Wylie’s friends was Joseph Severn, a struggling student of art. Severn soon attached himself to Keats with an admiring affection.[br /]
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[b]On The Stands[/b][br /]
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Keats’ passion for a poetic life grew steadily, aided by the encouragement of family and friends. Leigh Hunt first brought him before the world in print by publishing O Solitude ! If I With Thee Must Dwell in the Examiner, on May 5, 1816 and Sonnet On Chapman’s Homer on December 1 of the same year. He was soon encouraged to publish his first volume of poems and it was finally published in March 1817.[br /]
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The book had moderate sales at first, but it stopped after a few weeks. Keats soon left London for the Isle of Wight, intending to devote himself to making a fresh start on his new book Endymion.[br /]
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[b]Financial Problems[/b][br /]
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About this time George wrote to John informing him of his financial difficulties. The trust funds amounted to about £ 8000, out of which the interest was to be utilized for the maintenance of the children till they came of age and then the principal amount was to be divided among them. But John’s expenses during his medical studies had to be raised on the security of the expected share. Similarly, Tom who was an invalid, had been advanced money and so had George. The Keats brothers were quite ill-informed about their finances.[br /]
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Before John left London, he had come in contact with Merres Taylor and Hessey, publishers of London Magazine. He made an arrangement with them for the eventual publication of Endymion and started receiving some advance from them.[br /]
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After moving about a little, the Keats brothers decided to take up lodgings at Hampstead, with a Mr and Mrs Bentley. Hampstead was quite convenient for Keats for more than one reason. Its fresh air was beneficial to the invalid brother, Tom. The beauty of the fields and wood, along with the picturesque habitations were ideal for John’s own long walks and meditations. Keats's imagination could easily transport this countryside beauty into the landscapes of Arcadia or of fable-land. Moreover, it was conveniently secluded from London and yet in its proximity, and finally it was in the immediate neighborhood of one or two intimate friends. In such pleasant surroundings, the Endymion progressed well. It was here that he made new friends, Charles Wentworth Dilke, Charles Armitage Brown and Benjamin Bailey.[br /]
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By now his Third Book of Endymion was nearing completion. Around this time, he started maintaining regular correspondence with his sister Frances Mary, or Fanny as she was called. The Keats family bond did not leave out the kid sister, but after their grandmother’s death, Fanny was the responsibility of the trustee. She was put in a boarding school, later living at Mr Abbey’s own house. He often spoke to his friends about Fanny with ‘great delicacy and tenderness of affection.’ His correspondence with his sister shows Keats’ character in its most attractive light.[br /]
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[b]Keats : The Balancing Factor[/b][br /]
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It was around this time that Keats encountered discord among his friends. Haydon and Hunt were on uncomfortable terms, and so were Reynolds and Haydon, each trying to instigate Keats against the other. But Keats never let this kind of thing disturb his relations with his friends. He wrote to Bailey around this time, "The sure way, Baile, is first to know a man’s faults, and then be passive. If after that he insensibly draws you towards him, then you have no power to break the link. Before I felt interest in either Reynolds or Haydon, I was well read in their faults, yet knowing them both. I have an affection for them both, for reasons almost opposite, and to both must I of necessity cling…"[br /]
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Soon the Endymion was completed. The brothers were temporarily separated when Tom and George went to Devonshire for the sake of Tom’s health. Apart from composing minor and incidental poems, Keats did not take up any major work.[br /]
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[b]Champion[/b][br /]
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The Christmas weeks of 1817-18 were pleasant enough. Keats was the theatrical critic for the Champion newspaper in place of Reynolds, who was away. He was able to visit his sister, who was brought to London for the Christmas holidays, and he had the ‘immemorable dinner’ with Wordsworth. The party also included Charles Lamb, Monkhouse and Richtchie, the African traveler.[br /]
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The month of February 1818 was perhaps the most prolific. Keats wrote a number of small but good pieces. By now his brother George had decided to marry and migrate to America. Tom had to be looked after, and so Keats joined his invalid brother at Teighnmouth, Devonshire. The Devonshire weather was not at its best. Keats writes, "you say what you will of Devonshire; the truth is, it is a splashy, rainy, musty, snowy, foggy, haily, floody, muddy, slipshod country. The hills are very beautiful, when you get a sight of them, the primroses are out, - but then you are in; the cliff’s are of a fine deep color, but then the clouds are continually viewing with them…." This weather allowed him only an occasional walk to enjoy the beauty of the scenery and the flowers. Besides taking care of his invalid brother, Keats was seeing the last sheets of Endymion through the press. He also composed Isabella, the first of his longer poems. This poem is written with much maturity and certainty of touch. He also read Milton’s Paradise Lost, swiftly grasping the very essence of its power and beauty. Keats’ power was maturing rapidly, but at the same time, the mysteries of existence and suffering, and the ‘deeps of good and evil’, were beginning, for the first time to weigh on his mind. "[br /]
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[i]"… and tho’, to-day,[br /]
I’ve gather’d young spring-leaves, and flowers gay[br /]
On periwinkle and wild strawberry,[br /]
Still do I that most fierce destruction see, -[br /]
The Shark at savage prey, - the Hawk at Pounce, -[br /]
The gentle Robin, like a Pard or Ounce,[br /]
Ravening a worm, - Away, ye horrid moods ![br /]
Moods of one’s mind !"[br /]
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- ‘twas a quiet eve,[/i][br /]
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[b]Light And Shade[/b][br /]
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All was not well with Keats’ world. Sicknesses seemed to be following him. Sickness had touched not only his brother, but many of his friends too. But more eminent was the certain pain of the family break-up.[br /]
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George Keats had made up his mind to migrate to America, and use whatever capital he could get in business there. His long attachment to Miss Wylie culminated in their marriage. John and Tom both came to London to see the last of their brother.[br /]
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[b]Lost Love[/b][br /]
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Shortly afterwards, Keats met and fell in love with Fanny Brawne. She was a beautiful, high spirited girl who took care of Keats during his illness. Keats was very possessive and protective about her. It was a hopelessly tragic love affair. Even though they got engaged in October 1819 the wedding could never take place. She got married after Keats' death and led a normal life.[br /]
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December 1818 witnessed the death of his brother Tom, leaving John in despair. Taking the money advanced by his friend, Brown, Keats went off to the countryside to devote himself to literature. George’s American speculations did not succeed and he soon wrote to John to send him fresh funds.[br /]
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[b]Trying to Cope With Troubles[/b][br /]
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Keats soon resolved to shake off his troubles and was determined to face them with a spirit. For the next two years Keats produced poems which give us the true measure of his powers, even when peace of mind and health did not stand by him.[br /]
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When Keats returned to London, his will to face life sanely proved to be an illusion. He could stay away from his all-consuming object of love – Fanny Brawne for barely two days. The first meeting in about four months made him a passion’s slave again. Within a week he gave up all efforts to resist the spell and settled down next door to his joy and torment. He saw the future, "I shall be able to do nothing. I should like to cast the die for Love or Death. I have no patience with anything else." And the die was cast for death.[br /]
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Soon Keats’ closest friends realized that something was troubling Keats, that he was suffering, even though Keats never revealed anything to anyone. He became reckless about his health and was taking a few drops of laudanum to keep up his spirit. When Brown accidentally discovered this habit, he made Keats promise not to take a single drop without his knowledge.[br /]
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In January 1820, George Keats visited London for three weeks. Settled with his wife and child in America, George came to England to get possession of the remaining portion of the brother’s inheritance from the reluctant Mr Abbey. George also observed, "He was not the same being, although his reception of me was as warm as heart could wish; he did not speak with his former openness and unreserved, he had lost the reviving custom of venting his grief." He had also stopped writing.[br /]
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[b]Death[/b][br /]
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Keats’ condition began deteriorating and he was soon coughing blood. Friends were kind enough to nurse him. But the doctors recommended warmer climate for winter and in September 1820 John Keats sailed for Italy in the company of Severn. After a month’s journey and 10 days of quarantine in Naples, Keats and Severn came to Rome. Initially, he felt better, his mood was on the whole cheerful and thus thoughts were turning to poetry and verses. But on December 10, things took a turn for the worse. Violent fever accompanied by hemorrhages turned Keats' life into misery. He begged Severn to give him the bottle of laudanum, which Keats had entrusted to his friend while starting for Italy. Severn’s refusal to do so turned Keats’ appeal to despair. He tried to explain the gradual deterioration and tried to get the bottle of laudanum. For a while, he fiercely fought his friend’s ministrations to give in to his demand. But gradually the tumult of his soul abated. He tried to pass the remainder of his days in peace and contentment. After the first few troubled weeks, Keats normally lay quietly finding solace in his companion’s reading or in music. He would often ask the doctor, "Doctor, when will this posthumous life of mine come to an end ?" But his ‘posthumous’ life held out for about two and a half months and the end came to this brilliant poet on February 23, 1821, in Rome.[br /]
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This simple epitaph was good enough for Keats – "here lies one whose name was writ in water." Finding it too abrupt, Charles Brown had the following carved on the stone :[br /]
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"This Grave Contains All That Was Mortal Of A YOUNG ENGLISH POET Who On His Death Bed, In The Malicious Power Of His Enemies, Described These Words To Be Engraved On His Tombstone, ‘Here lies One whose Name was writ in water."[br /]
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Tracing John Keats' lineage, we find that he came from a middle-class background. His father, Thomas Keats, was the head ostler in a livery stable owned by Mr John Jennings. Thomas married Jennings's daughter, Frances. Mr Jennings soon retired leaving the management of the stable to his son-in-law. Thus John Keats (his three brothers and one sister included) was born at the stable, by the sign of The Swan–and–Hoop, on Finsbury pavement, facing the then open Lower Moorfields, on October 31, 1795. By the time the youngest child, Frances Mary was born in 1803, the family had shifted to a house in Graven Street, City Road.[br /]
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Though coming from humble backgrounds, both Thomas and Frances were quite intelligent and clever. Especially Frances, was a understanding and affectionate parent. The family was a very close-knit one, especially the bond that John and his mother and the brothers shared.[br /]
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[b]Education[/b][br /]
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Aspiring to give the best possible education to their children, the parents chose Rev John Clarke’s School at Enfield, a well-reputed school located among pleasant atmosphere. John started going to school in 1803. In the very next year, that is in 1804, Thomas met with an accident. He fell from his horse as he was riding home one night from Southgate. The fall killed him (April 16, 1804). After a hasty marriage of Mrs Keats’ to one William Rawlings, and an equally hasty separation the Keats family went to live with the recently widowed Mrs Jennings at Edmonton.[br /]
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Mr Jennings was quite comfortably off, financially. Apart from a number of legacies, which yielded a fixed income to his daughter, he had put a sum of £ 1,000 in trust for the Keats children. And so the next four or five years passed quite pleasantly and comfortably for John.[br /]
[br /]
In school John was spirited and generous, quarrelsome and forgiving, handsome and lovable, and a natural leader. He was passionate in both tears and laughter. But beneath this facade he concealed (except from his brothers) a streak of painful sensibility, subjecting him to moods of unreasonable suspicion and self-tormenting melancholy.[br /]
[br /]
The Keats brothers had always been close to each other. George, the second brother, was quite like John, except that he was less impulsive, bigger and stronger. Tom, the youngest brother was ‘delicate’ from childhood and was always protected by his two elder brothers. Their sister, then a child, was also bonded by the strong family sentiments.[br /]
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[b]The Book-lover[/b][br /]
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Initially, Keats showed no signs of being intellectual or artistic. He was methodical and orderly in what he did, but not studious. It was only when he was 14–15 years old, that he diverted his energy to studies. He soon became so engrossed in the pleasures of reading that he would always have a book in his hands – even before school and during play-hours. He preferred to read, rather than to play and won several literature-prizes in school. He soon exhausted the school library, reading every book of history, travel and fiction. Mythology was something that he enjoyed tremendously. During this period he took upon himself to translate Aeneid from Latin into English prose.[br /]
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[b]Death Of Mother[/b][br /]
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But trouble soon followed. John’s mother, Frances, already disabled by chronic rheumatism, fell ill and finally died in February 1810. John’s devotion to her was very much evident and he would not allow anyone else to attend to her, give her medicines or cook her food. He would sit with her for the entire night, reading novels to her.[br /]
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[b]Ready To Face Life[/b][br /]
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Within a few months of Frances’s death, Mrs Jennings executed a deed thereby putting her now orphaned grand-children under the care of two guardians. Most of her property was now to be held in trust by the guardians, till the children came of age. Although Mrs Jennings survived the execution of the deed by about four years, Mr Abbey and his co-trustee undertook the responsibilities and the management of the trust. By the end of 1810, John was withdrawn from school and readied for life. He was just 15 when he was apprenticed for five years to a surgeon, Mr Hammond, at Edmonton.[br /]
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The study of medicine did not lessen his passion for literature and whenever he could spare time; he would go to visit his friend Cowden Clarke, at his old school in Enfield. They would exchange and read books and discuss them. Around this time, he had finished his translation of Aeneid.
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[b]Keats : The Poet[/b][br /]
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But he had still not written or attempted to write any poetry. Then one day, Cowden Clarke introduced John to Spenser. They read the Epithalamium in the afternoon and Keats carried The Faerie Queen with him when he went back. Keats was delighted with this new world opened up to him. Charles Brown, one of Keats’ many friends recalls, "Though born to be a poet, he was ignorant of his birthright until he had completed his 18th year. It was The Faerie Queen that awakened his genius. In Spenser’s fairyland he was enchanted, breathed in a new world and became another being; till, enamored by the stanza, he attempted to imitate it and succeeded." This, his earliest attempt, The Imitation Of Spenser was his first volume of poems and "it is peculiarly interesting to those acquainted with his history."[br /]
[br /]
Secretly and shyly, Keats began writing sonnets and other verses, on various subjects, including his political impulse. But it was not until 1815 that he showed anything he had written to anybody, even his friend and confidante, Cowden Clarke.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Study Of Medicine[/b][br /]
[br /]
Keats had more than a year left of his apprenticeship, when he quarreled with Mr Hammond in the summer of 1814. Subsequently he came to London. He was about 19 years old. He continued his studies in London and enrolled as a student in the hospital of St Thomas and Guy, which were united for teaching purposes.[br /]
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John was a very attentive student. He attended his hospital and did his work regularly. He cleared his examination as licentiate at Apothecaries’ Hall with credit on July 25, 1816 and was appointed a dresser at Guy’s under Mr Lucas. His performance there was good and he was able to assist in the operations without problem. But by 1817 he was thinking more and more about leaving the medical profession and devoting himself to a literary life. The muse was steadily luring this ‘cheerful, crotchety rhymester’. He confessed, "the other day, during lecture there came a sunbeam into the room and with it a whole troop of creatures floating in the ray; and I was off with them to Oberon and fairy-land." For quite sometime now, his friends included young men of literary tastes and occupations. His verses were no longer kept hidden. They were freely passed around among friends and often attracted the notice and approval of writers of good repute.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Poetry - His Passion[/b][br /]
[br /]
By the time he was 21 years of age, John Keats had decided to opt for the muse. Mr Abbey, his guardian, was not very happy with this decision, but Keats was not to be swayed. There was no formal quarrel between them and Mr Abbey continued to manage the money even though Keats had come of age.[br /]
[br /]
Gradually Keats’ circle of literary friends grew. He would discuss and compare verses, always advocating for beauty as against the interest of action or passion. By nature, Keats was gentle, pleasant, steady, and well behaved. As one of his friends had observed, "his absolute devotion to poetry prevented his having any other taste or indulging in any vice."[br /]
[br /]
[b]His Friends : His Mentors[/b][br /]
[br /]
By now Cowden Clarke had also left Enfield and settled in London. The two friends met often, reading together as eagerly as before. One of the first books they thus attacked was Chapman’s Homer. After a night’s study, the next morning Clarke received the famous sonnet, On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer, written by Keats. Cowden Clarke was also instrumental in introducing Leigh Hunt to Keats.[br /]
[br /]
Hunt, along with his brothers, edited and published Examiner, a daily working towards improvement of English journalism. It was around 1816 to 1621, Hunt was the strongest intellectual influence on Keats. John Keats soon became a frequent and intimate visitor to the Hunt house. He admired Hunt and his 'extraordinary capacity for forming friendship'. They shared their interests and appreciation for poetry.[br /]
[br /]
They accompanied each other in prison too. Both the friends were convicted for using libel language for Prince of Wales. They called him, '... a violator of his word, a libertine over head and cars in debt and disgrace, a despiser of domestic ties, the companion of gamblers,...' etc. Both Keats and Hunt were imprisoned for two years from January 1813 to January 1815.[br /]
[br /]
Leigh Hunt also introduced Keats to a number of congenial spirits, prominent among them were John Hamilton Reynolds, the painter Haydon and the poet P B Shelley. He was also friendly with a Miss Georgiana Wylie, to whom George Keats was attached. Among Wylie’s friends was Joseph Severn, a struggling student of art. Severn soon attached himself to Keats with an admiring affection.[br /]
[br /]
[b]On The Stands[/b][br /]
[br /]
Keats’ passion for a poetic life grew steadily, aided by the encouragement of family and friends. Leigh Hunt first brought him before the world in print by publishing O Solitude ! If I With Thee Must Dwell in the Examiner, on May 5, 1816 and Sonnet On Chapman’s Homer on December 1 of the same year. He was soon encouraged to publish his first volume of poems and it was finally published in March 1817.[br /]
[br /]
The book had moderate sales at first, but it stopped after a few weeks. Keats soon left London for the Isle of Wight, intending to devote himself to making a fresh start on his new book Endymion.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Financial Problems[/b][br /]
[br /]
About this time George wrote to John informing him of his financial difficulties. The trust funds amounted to about £ 8000, out of which the interest was to be utilized for the maintenance of the children till they came of age and then the principal amount was to be divided among them. But John’s expenses during his medical studies had to be raised on the security of the expected share. Similarly, Tom who was an invalid, had been advanced money and so had George. The Keats brothers were quite ill-informed about their finances.[br /]
[br /]
Before John left London, he had come in contact with Merres Taylor and Hessey, publishers of London Magazine. He made an arrangement with them for the eventual publication of Endymion and started receiving some advance from them.[br /]
[br /]
After moving about a little, the Keats brothers decided to take up lodgings at Hampstead, with a Mr and Mrs Bentley. Hampstead was quite convenient for Keats for more than one reason. Its fresh air was beneficial to the invalid brother, Tom. The beauty of the fields and wood, along with the picturesque habitations were ideal for John’s own long walks and meditations. Keats's imagination could easily transport this countryside beauty into the landscapes of Arcadia or of fable-land. Moreover, it was conveniently secluded from London and yet in its proximity, and finally it was in the immediate neighborhood of one or two intimate friends. In such pleasant surroundings, the Endymion progressed well. It was here that he made new friends, Charles Wentworth Dilke, Charles Armitage Brown and Benjamin Bailey.[br /]
[br /]
By now his Third Book of Endymion was nearing completion. Around this time, he started maintaining regular correspondence with his sister Frances Mary, or Fanny as she was called. The Keats family bond did not leave out the kid sister, but after their grandmother’s death, Fanny was the responsibility of the trustee. She was put in a boarding school, later living at Mr Abbey’s own house. He often spoke to his friends about Fanny with ‘great delicacy and tenderness of affection.’ His correspondence with his sister shows Keats’ character in its most attractive light.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Keats : The Balancing Factor[/b][br /]
[br /]
It was around this time that Keats encountered discord among his friends. Haydon and Hunt were on uncomfortable terms, and so were Reynolds and Haydon, each trying to instigate Keats against the other. But Keats never let this kind of thing disturb his relations with his friends. He wrote to Bailey around this time, "The sure way, Baile, is first to know a man’s faults, and then be passive. If after that he insensibly draws you towards him, then you have no power to break the link. Before I felt interest in either Reynolds or Haydon, I was well read in their faults, yet knowing them both. I have an affection for them both, for reasons almost opposite, and to both must I of necessity cling…"[br /]
[br /]
Soon the Endymion was completed. The brothers were temporarily separated when Tom and George went to Devonshire for the sake of Tom’s health. Apart from composing minor and incidental poems, Keats did not take up any major work.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Champion[/b][br /]
[br /]
The Christmas weeks of 1817-18 were pleasant enough. Keats was the theatrical critic for the Champion newspaper in place of Reynolds, who was away. He was able to visit his sister, who was brought to London for the Christmas holidays, and he had the ‘immemorable dinner’ with Wordsworth. The party also included Charles Lamb, Monkhouse and Richtchie, the African traveler.[br /]
[br /]
The month of February 1818 was perhaps the most prolific. Keats wrote a number of small but good pieces. By now his brother George had decided to marry and migrate to America. Tom had to be looked after, and so Keats joined his invalid brother at Teighnmouth, Devonshire. The Devonshire weather was not at its best. Keats writes, "you say what you will of Devonshire; the truth is, it is a splashy, rainy, musty, snowy, foggy, haily, floody, muddy, slipshod country. The hills are very beautiful, when you get a sight of them, the primroses are out, - but then you are in; the cliff’s are of a fine deep color, but then the clouds are continually viewing with them…." This weather allowed him only an occasional walk to enjoy the beauty of the scenery and the flowers. Besides taking care of his invalid brother, Keats was seeing the last sheets of Endymion through the press. He also composed Isabella, the first of his longer poems. This poem is written with much maturity and certainty of touch. He also read Milton’s Paradise Lost, swiftly grasping the very essence of its power and beauty. Keats’ power was maturing rapidly, but at the same time, the mysteries of existence and suffering, and the ‘deeps of good and evil’, were beginning, for the first time to weigh on his mind. "[br /]
[br /]
[i]"… and tho’, to-day,[br /]
I’ve gather’d young spring-leaves, and flowers gay[br /]
On periwinkle and wild strawberry,[br /]
Still do I that most fierce destruction see, -[br /]
The Shark at savage prey, - the Hawk at Pounce, -[br /]
The gentle Robin, like a Pard or Ounce,[br /]
Ravening a worm, - Away, ye horrid moods ![br /]
Moods of one’s mind !"[br /]
[br /]
- ‘twas a quiet eve,[/i][br /]
[br /]
[b]Light And Shade[/b][br /]
[br /]
All was not well with Keats’ world. Sicknesses seemed to be following him. Sickness had touched not only his brother, but many of his friends too. But more eminent was the certain pain of the family break-up.[br /]
[br /]
George Keats had made up his mind to migrate to America, and use whatever capital he could get in business there. His long attachment to Miss Wylie culminated in their marriage. John and Tom both came to London to see the last of their brother.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Lost Love[/b][br /]
[br /]
Shortly afterwards, Keats met and fell in love with Fanny Brawne. She was a beautiful, high spirited girl who took care of Keats during his illness. Keats was very possessive and protective about her. It was a hopelessly tragic love affair. Even though they got engaged in October 1819 the wedding could never take place. She got married after Keats' death and led a normal life.[br /]
[br /]
December 1818 witnessed the death of his brother Tom, leaving John in despair. Taking the money advanced by his friend, Brown, Keats went off to the countryside to devote himself to literature. George’s American speculations did not succeed and he soon wrote to John to send him fresh funds.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Trying to Cope With Troubles[/b][br /]
[br /]
Keats soon resolved to shake off his troubles and was determined to face them with a spirit. For the next two years Keats produced poems which give us the true measure of his powers, even when peace of mind and health did not stand by him.[br /]
[br /]
When Keats returned to London, his will to face life sanely proved to be an illusion. He could stay away from his all-consuming object of love – Fanny Brawne for barely two days. The first meeting in about four months made him a passion’s slave again. Within a week he gave up all efforts to resist the spell and settled down next door to his joy and torment. He saw the future, "I shall be able to do nothing. I should like to cast the die for Love or Death. I have no patience with anything else." And the die was cast for death.[br /]
[br /]
Soon Keats’ closest friends realized that something was troubling Keats, that he was suffering, even though Keats never revealed anything to anyone. He became reckless about his health and was taking a few drops of laudanum to keep up his spirit. When Brown accidentally discovered this habit, he made Keats promise not to take a single drop without his knowledge.[br /]
[br /]
In January 1820, George Keats visited London for three weeks. Settled with his wife and child in America, George came to England to get possession of the remaining portion of the brother’s inheritance from the reluctant Mr Abbey. George also observed, "He was not the same being, although his reception of me was as warm as heart could wish; he did not speak with his former openness and unreserved, he had lost the reviving custom of venting his grief." He had also stopped writing.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Death[/b][br /]
[br /]
Keats’ condition began deteriorating and he was soon coughing blood. Friends were kind enough to nurse him. But the doctors recommended warmer climate for winter and in September 1820 John Keats sailed for Italy in the company of Severn. After a month’s journey and 10 days of quarantine in Naples, Keats and Severn came to Rome. Initially, he felt better, his mood was on the whole cheerful and thus thoughts were turning to poetry and verses. But on December 10, things took a turn for the worse. Violent fever accompanied by hemorrhages turned Keats' life into misery. He begged Severn to give him the bottle of laudanum, which Keats had entrusted to his friend while starting for Italy. Severn’s refusal to do so turned Keats’ appeal to despair. He tried to explain the gradual deterioration and tried to get the bottle of laudanum. For a while, he fiercely fought his friend’s ministrations to give in to his demand. But gradually the tumult of his soul abated. He tried to pass the remainder of his days in peace and contentment. After the first few troubled weeks, Keats normally lay quietly finding solace in his companion’s reading or in music. He would often ask the doctor, "Doctor, when will this posthumous life of mine come to an end ?" But his ‘posthumous’ life held out for about two and a half months and the end came to this brilliant poet on February 23, 1821, in Rome.[br /]
[br /]
This simple epitaph was good enough for Keats – "here lies one whose name was writ in water." Finding it too abrupt, Charles Brown had the following carved on the stone :[br /]
[br /]
"This Grave Contains All That Was Mortal Of A YOUNG ENGLISH POET Who On His Death Bed, In The Malicious Power Of His Enemies, Described These Words To Be Engraved On His Tombstone, ‘Here lies One whose Name was writ in water."[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]JOHN KEATS (1795 – 1821)[/b][br /]
[br /]
"The genius of poetry must work out its own salvation in man. It cannot be matured by law and precept, but by sensation and watchfulness in itself. That which is creative must create itself."[br /]
[br /]
These words by John Keats express his philosophy of creation. Poetry was all about appreciation of beauty for its own self. His poetry is marked with vivid imagery and sensuous appeal. [br /]
[br /]
Unlike Wordsworth and Shelley, Keats' love for beauty, especially natural beauty was for its own sake. He did not read any ‘message’ in nature. He enjoyed nature and beauty just as it was. Sensuous and sensitive, Keats is the archetype of the romantic poet. Though he never lived to write the poetry of "the agonies, the strife of human hearts", which he aspired to, he has given some immortal works which are likely to be remembered by generations to come.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]JOHN KEATS (1795 – 1821)[/b][br /]
[br /]
"The genius of poetry must work out its own salvation in man. It cannot be matured by law and precept, but by sensation and watchfulness in itself. That which is creative must create itself."[br /]
[br /]
These words by John Keats express his philosophy of creation. Poetry was all about appreciation of beauty for its own self. His poetry is marked with vivid imagery and sensuous appeal. [br /]
[br /]
Unlike Wordsworth and Shelley, Keats' love for beauty, especially natural beauty was for its own sake. He did not read any ‘message’ in nature. He enjoyed nature and beauty just as it was. Sensuous and sensitive, Keats is the archetype of the romantic poet. Though he never lived to write the poetry of "the agonies, the strife of human hearts", which he aspired to, he has given some immortal works which are likely to be remembered by generations to come.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[h2]Chronology of Works[/h2][br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]1811[/b] Imitation of Spenser[br /]
[br /]
[b]1816[/b] First looking into Chapman’s Homer[br /]
[br /]
[b]1817[/b] Poems[br /]
[br /]
[b]1818[/b] Endymion[br /]
[br /]
[b]1819[/b] Hyperion (Unfinished)[br /]
[br /]
[b]1820[/b] Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and other Poems[br /]
[br /]
[b]1848[/b] Letters[br /]
[br /]
[b]1931[/b] Letters to Fanny Brawne[br /]
[br /]
[b]1952[/b] Letters[br /]
[br /]
[b]1961[/b] Poems[br /]
[br /]
[b]1962[/b] Poems and Selected Letters[br /]
[br /]
[b]1970[/b] Complete Works[br /]
[br /]
[b]1982[/b] John Keats : Complete Poems (ed. By Jack Stillinger)[br /]
[br /]
[b]1989[/b] Keats and Shelley Notes[br /]
[br /]
[b]1990[/b] The Love Poems of John Keats[br /]
[br /]
[b]1993[/b] John Keats : Selected Poems[br /]
[br /]
[b]1994[/b] The Complete Poems of John Keats[br /]
[br /]
[b]1997[/b] Keats : Truth Imagination[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[h2]Chronology of Life[/h2][br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]October 31, 1795[/b] John Keats was born at Swan and Hoop Livery Stables, London.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1803[/b] Joined Clarke’s School at Enfield.[br /]
[br /]
[b]April 16, 1804[/b] John’s father Thomas Keats, died in a riding accident.[br /]
[br /]
[b]June 1804[/b] John’s mother, Frances Keats married William Rawlings.[br /]
[br /]
[b]March 10, 1810[/b] John’s mother, Frances died.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1810-11[/b] Was withdrawn from school and apprenticed to be a surgeon.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1815[/b] Left his master Mr Hammond at Edmonton and joined Guy’s Hospital as a medical student.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1816[/b] Passed the examination and got the license to practice as an Apothecary.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1818[/b] Tom Keats, John’s brother, died of tuberculosis.[br /]
John Keats fell in love with Fanny Brawne.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1820[/b] Sailed to Italy hoping to recover his health.[br /]
[br /]
[b]February 23, 1821[/b] John Keats died in Rome, Italy.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[h2]Chronology of Works[/h2][br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]1811[/b] Imitation of Spenser[br /]
[br /]
[b]1816[/b] First looking into Chapman’s Homer[br /]
[br /]
[b]1817[/b] Poems[br /]
[br /]
[b]1818[/b] Endymion[br /]
[br /]
[b]1819[/b] Hyperion (Unfinished)[br /]
[br /]
[b]1820[/b] Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and other Poems[br /]
[br /]
[b]1848[/b] Letters[br /]
[br /]
[b]1931[/b] Letters to Fanny Brawne[br /]
[br /]
[b]1952[/b] Letters[br /]
[br /]
[b]1961[/b] Poems[br /]
[br /]
[b]1962[/b] Poems and Selected Letters[br /]
[br /]
[b]1970[/b] Complete Works[br /]
[br /]
[b]1982[/b] John Keats : Complete Poems (ed. By Jack Stillinger)[br /]
[br /]
[b]1989[/b] Keats and Shelley Notes[br /]
[br /]
[b]1990[/b] The Love Poems of John Keats[br /]
[br /]
[b]1993[/b] John Keats : Selected Poems[br /]
[br /]
[b]1994[/b] The Complete Poems of John Keats[br /]
[br /]
[b]1997[/b] Keats : Truth Imagination[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[h2]Chronology of Life[/h2][br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]October 31, 1795[/b] John Keats was born at Swan and Hoop Livery Stables, London.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1803[/b] Joined Clarke’s School at Enfield.[br /]
[br /]
[b]April 16, 1804[/b] John’s father Thomas Keats, died in a riding accident.[br /]
[br /]
[b]June 1804[/b] John’s mother, Frances Keats married William Rawlings.[br /]
[br /]
[b]March 10, 1810[/b] John’s mother, Frances died.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1810-11[/b] Was withdrawn from school and apprenticed to be a surgeon.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1815[/b] Left his master Mr Hammond at Edmonton and joined Guy’s Hospital as a medical student.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1816[/b] Passed the examination and got the license to practice as an Apothecary.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1818[/b] Tom Keats, John’s brother, died of tuberculosis.[br /]
John Keats fell in love with Fanny Brawne.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1820[/b] Sailed to Italy hoping to recover his health.[br /]
[br /]
[b]February 23, 1821[/b] John Keats died in Rome, Italy.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
The French Revolution brought with it the ideals of liberty, brotherhood and fraternity. There was a wonderful enthusiasm in the air, a sense of freedom from all the evils of the past. Glorious dreams of progress and perfection were kindled in many a souls. Wordsworth aptly describes this period[br /]
[br /]
[i]"But Europe at that time was thrilled with joy[br /]
France standing on the top of golden hours,[br /]
And human nature seeming born again."[/i][br /]
[br /]
[b]He further says [/b][br /]
[br /]
[i]"Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,[br /]
But to he young was very heaven."[/i][br /]
[br /]
The spirit of literature could hardly remain untouched by such upheavals. It also sought freedom from the tyranny of formulas, traditions and conventions. Spontaneity, rather than precedence, was the rule of the day. Restrictions were giving way to freedom. This movement was initiated by poets like Wordsworth, Coleridge and Walter Scott and carried forward by the likes of Shelley, Byron and Keats. [br /]
[br /]
By the time Keats began writing poetry, this movement had gained momentum. But his hesitation in breaking away completely from tradition is apparent in the first volume of poems, which appeared in March 1817. Some of his earlier poems, included in this volume, cling to the 18th-century stiffness. But he soon got over this and many of the poems written at a later date celebrate the beauty of nature and the vividness of sensation, free from the constraints of tradition and convention.[br /]
[br /]
Beauty was, perhaps, most important to Keats – the opening line of Endymion[br /]
[br /]
[i]"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever"[/i][br /]
[br /]
best express his sentiments. He sought beauty in everything – in language too. He used language for its feeling for beauty rather than for its correctness. For Keats, poetry was not for philosophy, religious teachings or social and political theories, it had to be the incarnation of beauty, a celebration of beauty conveyed in appropriate language. He celebrates the everlasting beauty of the Grecian Urn[br /]
[br /]
[i]"Ah, happy, happy boughs ! That cannot shed[br /]
Your leaves, nor ever bid the spring achieve.[br /]
And, happy melodist, unwearied,[br /]
For ever piping songs forever new;[br /]
More happy love ! More happy, happy love ![br /]
For ever warm and still to be enjoy’d,[br /]
For ever panting and forever young;[br /]
All breathing human passion far alone,[br /]
That leaves a heart high – sorrowful and cloy’d,[br /]
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue."[/i][br /]
[br /]
[i][b]-Ode on a Grecian Urn[/b][/i][br /]
[br /]
Keats loved nature for its own sake, for its beauty, for the ‘glory and loveliness’ he found in it. His love for nature was not mystical; it was full of spiritual messages and meanings for its beauty. Keats was gifted with an insight into ‘Nature’s gentle doings’, the evidence of which is apparent in the first volume itself –
[br /]
[br /]
[i]" – let me thy vigils keep[br /]
Mongst boughs pavilion’d, where the deer’s swift leap[br /]
Startles the wild bee from the foxglove bell."[/i][br /]
[br /]
[b][i]--- To Solitude[/i][/b][br /]
[br /]
Keats was neither a rebel, like Byron, nor a utopian dreamer, like Shelley. He neither had Byron’s spirit of antagonism to the existing order of things nor Shelley’s passion for reforming the world. " I have loved the principle of beauty in all things," he confessed. He preferred the world of Greek mythology, (Endymion and Lamia and Hyperion) or of medieval romance (The Eve of St. Agnes, Isabella and La Bella Dame Sans Merci) to escape from the hard, cold and prosaic world.[br /]
[br /]
Keats died young – he was not yet 26 when death snatched him away. – One of "the inheritors of unfulfilled renown." Therefore it is but natural that there is a certain amount of immaturity and experimentation in his work. But his genius can be measured when we compare his earlier poems of the volume of 1817 or Endymion (1818) with the contents of his third and last volume publiahwd in 1819. It contains some of the greatest poetry of English literature – the great odes To Autumn, To A Nightingale, On A Grecian Urn, as well as La Bella Dame Sans Merci among others. Between 1814, when he wrote his first poem, Lines In Imitation Of Spenser and 1820, when he wrote what is probably his last poem ‘Bright Star ! Keats’ artistic genius ripened steadily and in 1819, he was able to reach his zenith. The year 1819 is often referred to as Keats’ ‘Annus Mirabilis’ or the ‘Year of Miracles.’[br /]
[br /]
The extremely short creative life of Keats has by no means diminished his genius or his importance. As far as form and style are concerned, he is perhaps the most ‘romantic’ of the Romantic Poets. Even his Greek themes move away from the restraint of Hellenic art and are endowed with exuberant language and a wealth of fine details. Classical couplets are replaced with those of a loose romantic type. Likewise, contemporary issues are avoided. Keats’ poetry breaks away from the social upheavals and humanitarian enthusiasm of the Revolution and returns to the past to devote itself completely to beauty.[br /]
[br /]
[b]"Beauty is truth, truth beauty’ – that is all[br /]
Ye know on earth and all ye need to know."[/b][br /]
[br /]
[i][b]--- Ode on a Grecian Urn[/b][/i][br /]
[br /]
One wonders how much we have lost because of Keats’ early death. His emotional temper and the delicacy of his natural observation have influenced many succeeding generations. The line addressed to the nightingale might as well be written for Keats –[br /]
[br /]
[i]"Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird !"[/i][br /]
[br /]
[i][b]--- Ode to A Nightingale[/b][/i][br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[i]"But Europe at that time was thrilled with joy[br /]
France standing on the top of golden hours,[br /]
And human nature seeming born again."[/i][br /]
[br /]
[b]He further says [/b][br /]
[br /]
[i]"Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,[br /]
But to he young was very heaven."[/i][br /]
[br /]
The spirit of literature could hardly remain untouched by such upheavals. It also sought freedom from the tyranny of formulas, traditions and conventions. Spontaneity, rather than precedence, was the rule of the day. Restrictions were giving way to freedom. This movement was initiated by poets like Wordsworth, Coleridge and Walter Scott and carried forward by the likes of Shelley, Byron and Keats. [br /]
[br /]
By the time Keats began writing poetry, this movement had gained momentum. But his hesitation in breaking away completely from tradition is apparent in the first volume of poems, which appeared in March 1817. Some of his earlier poems, included in this volume, cling to the 18th-century stiffness. But he soon got over this and many of the poems written at a later date celebrate the beauty of nature and the vividness of sensation, free from the constraints of tradition and convention.[br /]
[br /]
Beauty was, perhaps, most important to Keats – the opening line of Endymion[br /]
[br /]
[i]"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever"[/i][br /]
[br /]
best express his sentiments. He sought beauty in everything – in language too. He used language for its feeling for beauty rather than for its correctness. For Keats, poetry was not for philosophy, religious teachings or social and political theories, it had to be the incarnation of beauty, a celebration of beauty conveyed in appropriate language. He celebrates the everlasting beauty of the Grecian Urn[br /]
[br /]
[i]"Ah, happy, happy boughs ! That cannot shed[br /]
Your leaves, nor ever bid the spring achieve.[br /]
And, happy melodist, unwearied,[br /]
For ever piping songs forever new;[br /]
More happy love ! More happy, happy love ![br /]
For ever warm and still to be enjoy’d,[br /]
For ever panting and forever young;[br /]
All breathing human passion far alone,[br /]
That leaves a heart high – sorrowful and cloy’d,[br /]
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue."[/i][br /]
[br /]
[i][b]-Ode on a Grecian Urn[/b][/i][br /]
[br /]
Keats loved nature for its own sake, for its beauty, for the ‘glory and loveliness’ he found in it. His love for nature was not mystical; it was full of spiritual messages and meanings for its beauty. Keats was gifted with an insight into ‘Nature’s gentle doings’, the evidence of which is apparent in the first volume itself –
[br /]
[br /]
[i]" – let me thy vigils keep[br /]
Mongst boughs pavilion’d, where the deer’s swift leap[br /]
Startles the wild bee from the foxglove bell."[/i][br /]
[br /]
[b][i]--- To Solitude[/i][/b][br /]
[br /]
Keats was neither a rebel, like Byron, nor a utopian dreamer, like Shelley. He neither had Byron’s spirit of antagonism to the existing order of things nor Shelley’s passion for reforming the world. " I have loved the principle of beauty in all things," he confessed. He preferred the world of Greek mythology, (Endymion and Lamia and Hyperion) or of medieval romance (The Eve of St. Agnes, Isabella and La Bella Dame Sans Merci) to escape from the hard, cold and prosaic world.[br /]
[br /]
Keats died young – he was not yet 26 when death snatched him away. – One of "the inheritors of unfulfilled renown." Therefore it is but natural that there is a certain amount of immaturity and experimentation in his work. But his genius can be measured when we compare his earlier poems of the volume of 1817 or Endymion (1818) with the contents of his third and last volume publiahwd in 1819. It contains some of the greatest poetry of English literature – the great odes To Autumn, To A Nightingale, On A Grecian Urn, as well as La Bella Dame Sans Merci among others. Between 1814, when he wrote his first poem, Lines In Imitation Of Spenser and 1820, when he wrote what is probably his last poem ‘Bright Star ! Keats’ artistic genius ripened steadily and in 1819, he was able to reach his zenith. The year 1819 is often referred to as Keats’ ‘Annus Mirabilis’ or the ‘Year of Miracles.’[br /]
[br /]
The extremely short creative life of Keats has by no means diminished his genius or his importance. As far as form and style are concerned, he is perhaps the most ‘romantic’ of the Romantic Poets. Even his Greek themes move away from the restraint of Hellenic art and are endowed with exuberant language and a wealth of fine details. Classical couplets are replaced with those of a loose romantic type. Likewise, contemporary issues are avoided. Keats’ poetry breaks away from the social upheavals and humanitarian enthusiasm of the Revolution and returns to the past to devote itself completely to beauty.[br /]
[br /]
[b]"Beauty is truth, truth beauty’ – that is all[br /]
Ye know on earth and all ye need to know."[/b][br /]
[br /]
[i][b]--- Ode on a Grecian Urn[/b][/i][br /]
[br /]
One wonders how much we have lost because of Keats’ early death. His emotional temper and the delicacy of his natural observation have influenced many succeeding generations. The line addressed to the nightingale might as well be written for Keats –[br /]
[br /]
[i]"Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird !"[/i][br /]
[br /]
[i][b]--- Ode to A Nightingale[/b][/i][br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [b]Adolescence [/b][br /]
The imagination of a boy is healthy and the mature imagination of a man is healthy; but there is a space of life between, in which the soul is in a ferment, the character undecided, the way of life uncertain, the ambition thick-sighted: thence proceeds mawkishness.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [b]Death and Dying[/b][br /]
When I have fears that I may cease to be, before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [b]Experience[/b][br /]
Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced – even a proverb is no proverb to you till your life has illustrated it.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [b]Fame [/b][br /]
Who would wish to be among the commonplace crowded of the little famous – who are each individually lost in a throng made up of themselves?[br /]
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[b]•[/b] [b]Human Nature[/b][br /]
There is an electric fire in human nature tending to purify – so that among these human creatures there is continually some birth of new heroism. The pity is that we must wonder at it, as we should at finding a pearl in rubbish.[br /]
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[b]•[/b] [b]Opinions [/b][br /]
The only means of strengthening one’s intellect is to make up one’s mind about nothing – to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts. Not a select party.[br /]
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[b]•[/b] [b]Poetry and Poets[/b][br /]
Poetry should be great and unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one’s soul and does not startle it or amaze it with itself, but with its subject.[br /]
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[b]•[/b] [b]Security[/b][br /]
There is nothing stable in the world; uproar’s your only music.[br /]
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[b]•[/b] [b]Truth [/b][br /]
What the imagination seizes as beauty must be the truth.[br /]
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