John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was one of the principal poets of the English Romantic movement.31 October February1821poetsEnglishRomantic During his short life, his work received constant critical attacks from the periodicals of the day, though politics, rather than aesthetics, often dictated those opinions. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, audiences began to appreciate more fully the significance of the cultural change his work both presaged and helped to form. Elaborate word choice and sensuous imagery characterize Keats's poetry, especially his early writings. He often felt himself working in the shadow of past poets, particularly Milton, Spenser and Shakespeare. Only towards the end of his life did he produce his most original and most memorable poems, including a series of odes that remain among the most popular poems in English.MiltonSpenserShakespeareodes

John Keats

Early Life Keats lived happily for the first seven years of his life. The beginnings of his troubles occurred in 1804, when his father died from a fractured skull after falling from his horse.1804 His mother, Frances Jennings Keats, remarried soon afterwards, but quickly left the new husband and moved herself and her four children (a son had died in infancy) to live with Keats' grandmother. There, Keats attended a school that first instilled in him a love of literature. In 1810, however, his mother died of tuberculosis, leaving him and his siblings in the custody of their grandmother.1810tuberculosis

Early Life II The grandmother appointed two guardians to take care of her new "charges", and these guardians removed Keats from his old school to become a surgeon's apprentice. This continued until 1814, when, after a fight with his master, he left his apprenticeship and became a student at a local hospital.1814 During that year, he devoted more and more of his time to the study of literature. He gained his medical qualification, LSA, in July Keats travelled to the Isle of Wight in the spring of 1817, where he spent a week.LSAIsle of Wight

His disease He soon found his brother, Tom Keats, entrusted to his care. Tom was suffering, as his mother had, from tuberculosis. Finishing his epic poem "Endymion", Keats left to stay and walk in Scotland and Ireland with his friend Charles Brown.tuberculosisEndymion ScotlandIreland However, he too began to show signs of tuberculosis infection on that trip, and returned prematurely. When he did, he found that Tom's condition had deteriorated, and that "Endymion"' had, as had Poems before it, been the target of much abuse from the critics.

Love and Suffering On 1 December 1818, Tom Keats died from his disease, and John Keats moved again, to live in Brown's house in Hampstead.1 December1818 There he lived next door to Fanny Brawne, where she had been staying with her mother. He then quickly fell in love with Fanny. However, it was overall an unhappy affair for the poet; Keats' ardour for her seemed to bring him more vexation than comfort. The later (posthumous) publication of their correspondence was to scandalise Victorian society. In the diary of Fanny Brawne was found only one sentence regarding the separation: "Mr. Keats has left Hampstead."

Death This relationship was cut short when, by 1820, Keats began showing worse signs of the disease that had plagued his family.1820 On the suggestion of his doctors, he left the cold airs of London behind and moved to Italy with his friend Joseph Severn.Joseph Severn Keats moved into a house on the Spanish Steps, in Rome, where despite attentive care from Severn and Dr. John Clark, the poet's health rapidly deteriorated. He died in 1821 and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome.Spanish StepsRome1821Protestant Cemetery, Rome

His Work. Keats produced some of his finest poetry during the spring and summer of 1819; in fact, the period from September 1818 to September 1819 is often referred to among Keats scholars as the Great Year, or the Living Year, because it was during this period that he was most productive and that he wrote his most critically acclaimed works Several major events have been noted as factors in this increased productivity: namely, the death of his brother Tom, the critical reviews of Endymion, and his meeting of Fanny Brawne.Endymion The famous odes he produced during the spring and summer of 1819 include: Ode to Psyche, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on Melancholy, and To Autumn. 1819Ode to PsycheOde on a Grecian UrnOde to a NightingaleOde on MelancholyTo Autumn