Introduction:

John Keats
John Keats 


John Keats was a British romantic poet. He devoted his short life to English lyrical poetry. Keats is considered as one of the best poets in the second generation of English romantic poets along with Percy Bysshe Shelly and Lord byron. He made a big impact on English literature in his short life. His poems were published only for four years because he died of Tuberculosis at the age of only 25.

Keats got more fame after his death than in his life. He got a place in the "Canon of literature" in the last years of the 19th century. Later, Keats inspired many poets and became an influential personality. Keats is known for his style which was full of imagery and eroticism. He used natural imagery to describe human emotions.

Childhood and early life:

John Keats was born on 31 October, in 1795, in Moorgate, London. The parents of John Keats were "Thomas Keats" and "Francis Keats". He had four siblings and he was the eldest of them all. Keats used to believe that he was born at the inn, but there is not any proof of the exact birth of John Keats

In 1803, Keats went to Clarke’s school in Enfield. The curriculum of Clarke’s school was very progressive and unique. Keats found that so familiar. He developed his interests in History and Classics, which were with him throughout his short life. 

Keats met a friend Charles Cowden Clarke who was the son of the HeadMaster of Clarke's school. He introduced Keats to renaissance literature including Chapman and Spensar’s translations. “Always in extremes, given to dormancy and fighting”, Keats’s friend Edward Holmes described Little Keats. But later John began to focus on studying and reading. Keats won his first academic award in midsummer.

John Keats’s father died when he was only 8 due to a skull fracture. His mother "Francis" remarried after two months of Keats's father's death. Keats with his four siblings went to the village of his Grandmother. 

When John Keats turned 14, his mother died of tuberculosis, living the children. Then, all the children came to the custody of John Keats's Grandmother. Keats's mother appointed John Sandell and Richard Abbey to look after her children. 

Keats left Clarke’s school and began to apprentice with his neighbor Thomas Hammond, who was a surgeon. 

Career and life:

After finishing the apprenticeship, Keats took admission to Guy’s Hospital as a Medical Student in October 1815. Within a few days, he was appointed as an assistant of surgeons during operations. Keats did a long training with Hammond at Guy's hospital and because of this, his family thought he would have a good career in medicine and surgery. Keats also had a firm desire to become a doctor at that time. 

John Keats wrote his first abiding and perpetual poem “An imitation of Sepensar”. He faced a lot of depression due to the financial crises and was circumvented by his family. Later he got awarded an apothecary’s license which made him eligible as a physician and a surgeon. But he told to his guardian that he wants to become a poet, not a physician. 

He continued his work in Guy’s hospital but spent most of the time studying literature and experiment with different sonnets. "The examiner", a magazine of Leigh Hunt published a sonnet "O solitude" in it, which was written by John Keats. 

After five months, Keats’s first book was published included poems “Sleep and Poetry” which were influenced by Hunt. The book did not attain a lot of popularity and was the first failure of John Keats. Charles and Jammes Ollier, publisher of the book were ashamed of it. 

After, the failure Keats changed publishers Hessey and Taylor. Keats’s new publishers were professional and passionate about their work.

Hassey and Taylor introduced Keats Richard Woodhouse, a lawyer. Richard was a great fan of literature and poetry. He noticed that John Keats had the ability to become the English greatest writer. They became good friends and Woodhouse started documenting Keats poetry. 

After receiving bad reviews about the poems by many people, Hunt published an essay "Three young writers", and a sonnet "first looking into Chapman's house", written by John Keats, people praised them a lot. Hunt also introduced Keats to many big people of the circle that included the poet, John Hamilton Reynolds.

In 1817, Keats told Abbey that he would leave medicine for the sake of his passion for poetry. Keats quit his medical training and went to Hampstead in 1817. During his time in Hampstead, Keats became a good friend with Charles Wentworth Dilike.

In June 1818, Keats decided to go to Scotland with Charles Armitage Brown. Keats came to Lancashire with his brother and the wife of his brother. Next, Keats took a ship and traveled from Liverpool to America. During his journey to Scotland, Keats experienced first symptoms of tuberculosis. 

He returned to London again after a short period, there was a big criticism of his poems. Keats faced all the criticism bravely. John Keats moved to the Wentworth’s place. There he wrote six beautiful Odes. Two of them odes were “Ode to a nightingale” and “Ode to Physche”. The “Ode to a nightingale” was written under a palm tree by experiencing the nightingale’s nest and its song which was really tranquil.

In 1819, John Keats wrote a poem “Hyperion”, “The eve of St. Agnes”, and “Otho the great”. At that time, Keats’s brother “Tom” was suffering from Tuberculosis. At the same time, John Keats met Fanny Brawne, his neighbor in Hampstead. Fanny Brawne was a young lady with a generous, munificent, and firm character. Keats soon fell in love with Brawne. That young girl was a big cause of Keats’s development. Keats always wanted a good relation with her but Keats’s bad health didn’t allow it. 

In October 1819, Keats got engaged to Fanny. The odes and all the famous poems of Keats were published in 1820. In the same year, Keats got diagnosed with Tuberculosis. His all friends and Brawne nursed him all the year and took care of him.

Knowing of Keats’s bad conditions, Percy Bysshe Shelley offered him to come to Pisa for treatment. Keats went to Rome, Italy.

Also read: Biography of William Shakespeare

Death:

The start of 2021 was so bad for Keats. Keats started coughing with blood and came to know that he will die soon. John Keats died in Rome, Italy. He is buried in Protestant Cemetery. Keats made his last request which was to writing nothing on the tombstone of his grave. He died just at the age of 15. His poetical career started in 1814 and ended in 1820 with only four years of Publishing but he is still living in books of history and still famous than many poets who wrote for years.