John Keats 1795 - 1821

John Keats 1795 - 1821

Keats was born in London. His father died when he was eight and his mother when he was fourteen. John was first made an apprentice to a doctor, and then went on to study medicine, but soon abandoned a medical career for literature. In this choice he was influenced by Leigh Hunt, a radical, who encouraged Keats, introducing him to William Hazlitt, Charles Lamb, Shelley, and many other artists of the time.

In 1816 he published a beautiful sonnet, On First Looking into Chapman's Homer, and Sleep and Poetry. In 1818 Endymion appeared, a long allegory of his search for an ideal female love.

After some bad criticisms on his first works, other problems arose for Keats. He fell in love with Fanny Brawne, but his illness as well as his self-imposed dedication to poetry made it impossible for him to marry her. In 1819 Keats produced an astonishing series of masterpieces in which a deeper inspiration can be felt: his famous odes, To a Nightingale, On a Grecian Urn, To Autumn, On Melancholy, and Hyperion, a long unfinished poem.

In 1820 he went to Italy in a vain attempt to recover his health, but he died in Rome in February 1821. He was buried in the Protestant Cemetery.

Texts:

● When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be

● La Belle Dame Sans Merci

● Ode on a Grecian Urn