John Keats remains one of the most celebrated figures in English literature, a Romantic poet whose short life produced an astonishing volume of work characterized by intense beauty, vivid imagery, and profound emotional depth. Despite facing harsh criticism during his lifetime and succumbing to illness at a young age, Keats’s poetic genius was eventually recognized, and his influence continues to resonate through generations of poets and readers.
John Keats Portrait by Joseph Severn
A contemplative portrayal of John Keats, captured in a drawing by his close friend Joseph Severn, reflects the poet’s sensitive and introspective nature.
Early Life and Influences
Born in London on October 31, 1795, John Keats experienced significant personal loss early in life. His father, a stable manager, passed away when Keats was just eight years old, and his mother remarried shortly thereafter. These early disruptions shaped Keats’s close bonds with his siblings – his sister Fanny and brothers George and Tom. Following the failure of his mother’s second marriage, the Keats children were raised by their grandmother in Edmonton, Middlesex.
Keats’s formal education was somewhat limited, but he attended a school in Enfield run by John Clarke. It was Clarke’s son, Charles Cowden Clarke, who played a pivotal role in nurturing Keats’s literary aspirations. Initially described as a spirited and “not literary” boy, Keats began to immerse himself in reading around 1809. The death of his mother in 1810 led to the appointment of Richard Abbey as guardian, who, in 1811, apprenticed Keats to a surgeon in Edmonton.
However, Keats’s burgeoning literary interests proved too strong to ignore. He discontinued his surgical apprenticeship in 1814 and moved to London. There, he worked as a dresser, essentially a junior surgeon, at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospitals. By 1817, his passion for poetry had fully solidified, and he made the decisive choice to dedicate his life entirely to verse. From this point forward, Keats’s biography becomes inextricably linked with the poems he created.
Formative Poetic Works
Charles Cowden Clarke introduced Keats to the works of Edmund Spenser and other Elizabethan poets, who became foundational influences on his early style. His first significant poem, the sonnet “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” (1816), exemplifies this. Inspired by George Chapman’s 17th-century translation of the Iliad and Odyssey, the poem captures Keats’s exhilaration upon discovering this literary treasure.
Through Clarke, Keats entered the literary circle of Leigh Hunt, a journalist and poet. In Hunt’s circle, Keats befriended fellow poet John Hamilton Reynolds and painter Benjamin Haydon. Keats’s first published collection, Poems (1817), reflects Hunt’s influence, characterized by its relaxed, rambling style, loose heroic couplets, and lighthearted rhymes. Among the poems, “Sleep and Poetry” stands out for its foreshadowing of Keats’s poetic journey. He expresses a desire to move beyond simple appreciation of nature’s beauty towards a deeper engagement with “the agony and strife of human hearts.” While the collection displays Keats’s keen observation of nature and Spenserian echoes, it is in his later work that his true genius would fully emerge.
In 1817, Keats briefly traveled to the Isle of Wight and Canterbury and began composing Endymion, his ambitious first long poem. Upon returning to London, he shared lodgings in Hampstead with his brothers. Endymion was published in 1818, a lengthy work divided into four sections, each consisting of a thousand lines in rhymed couplets. The poem reimagines the Greek myth of the moon goddess’s love for the mortal shepherd Endymion. Keats focuses on Endymion’s pursuit of an ideal love, a central theme in Romanticism – the yearning to realize an imaginative ideal in the real world. This quest unfolds through fantastical adventures and rich, sensuous descriptions. Endymion’s journey involves a seeming betrayal of his lunar goddess for an earthly maiden, drawn to her by human connection. Ultimately, the goddess and the maiden are revealed to be one and the same, symbolizing the union of the ideal and the real. Keats uses Endymion’s initial romantic fervor to represent a broader quest for transcendence and unity with creation. Despite its imaginative scope, Keats himself was critical of Endymion upon its completion, sensing its flaws.
Crisis and Creative Maturity
The summer of 1818 proved to be a turning point. Keats embarked on a walking tour of the Lake District and Scotland with Charles Brown. The physical strain and exposure during this trip triggered the onset of tuberculosis, the disease that would claim his life. Upon his return to London, harsh critical reviews of his early poems surfaced in Blackwood’s Magazine, followed by a similarly scathing critique of Endymion in the Quarterly Review. Contrary to later narratives portraying Keats as crushed by these reviews, he responded with remarkable resilience and continued to write prolifically, steadfast in his artistic vision.
However, personal tragedies mounted. His brother Tom’s health, already compromised by tuberculosis, deteriorated rapidly. In the autumn of 1818, Keats devoted himself to nursing Tom through his final days. During this period of intense personal stress, Keats met Fanny Brawne, a neighbor in Hampstead. Their relationship quickly blossomed into a profound and ultimately tragic love affair. Fanny profoundly impacted Keats’s creative development. While seemingly ordinary, she possessed a strong and generous character, and she cared for Keats. Yet, Keats’s letters reveal his intense emotional demands, perhaps exceeding what anyone could fulfill. His precarious financial situation and declining health made a conventional relationship impossible.
Following Tom’s death and George’s emigration to America, Keats moved into Wentworth Place with Brown. In April 1819, Fanny Brawne and her mother became their neighbors. By October 1819, Keats and Fanny were engaged. This period, marked by both passionate love and encroaching illness, became Keats’s most creatively fertile.
The Great Year: 1819 and Masterpieces
The year 1819 represents an extraordinary period of artistic output for John Keats. Despite his personal turmoil and deteriorating health, he produced a remarkable series of poems that cemented his place in literary history. This “great year” saw the creation of:
- “Ode to a Nightingale”: A profound meditation on mortality, beauty, and the desire to escape the pain of human existence through art and nature.
- “Ode on a Grecian Urn”: Exploring themes of eternal beauty, truth, and the limitations of mortal experience in contrast to the timelessness of art.
- “Ode to Psyche”: A celebration of the goddess Psyche and the power of imagination and the human soul.
- “Ode on Melancholy”: An exploration of the intertwined nature of joy and sorrow, and the acceptance of melancholy as an integral part of life.
- “Ode on Indolence”: Reflecting on the allure of artistic passivity versus the call to creative action.
- “To Autumn”: A sensuous and richly evocative ode capturing the beauty and abundance of the autumn season, often considered his most perfect ode.
- “La Belle Dame sans Merci”: A haunting ballad exploring themes of love, enchantment, and disillusionment through a medieval romance narrative.
- “The Eve of St. Agnes”: A narrative poem filled with rich imagery and sensuous details, telling a story of love and escape during a winter festival.
- “Lamia”: A narrative poem drawing on classical mythology to explore the complexities of love, illusion, and the conflict between the real and the imagined.
- “Hyperion” and “The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream”: Two unfinished epic poems attempting to grapple with grand mythological themes and the role of the poet in a world of suffering and change.
These works demonstrate Keats’s mastery of language, his profound engagement with philosophical themes, and his ability to evoke intense emotional experiences through his poetry. They showcase his signature sensuous imagery, his exploration of beauty and mortality, and his evolving poetic voice.
Final Days and Lasting Impact
In 1820, Keats’s health declined sharply. Doctors recommended a warmer climate, and in September 1820, he sailed to Italy with his friend Joseph Severn. They arrived in Rome, but the change in climate offered no relief. John Keats died in Rome on February 23, 1821, at the tragically young age of 25. He was buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome. His tombstone, poignantly reflecting his own feelings of unfulfilled potential and critical neglect, bears the inscription: “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.”
The gravestone of John Keats in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, poignantly inscribed with “Here lies one whose name was writ in water,” reflecting his perceived lack of recognition during his lifetime.
Despite the initial critical indifference and his untimely death, John Keats’s poetry has since achieved immense acclaim. His reputation grew steadily after his death, particularly during the Victorian era. Poets like Alfred, Lord Tennyson and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood were deeply influenced by his work, drawn to his rich imagery, sensuous language, and exploration of beauty and emotion.
Today, John Keats is recognized as one of the most important poets in the English language. His odes, sonnets, and narrative poems continue to be read and studied worldwide, admired for their lyrical beauty, emotional depth, and enduring exploration of universal human themes. His life, though short, left an indelible mark on literature, and his poems remain a testament to the power of beauty and imagination in the face of mortality.
