A biography of John Keats

 John Keats  1795-1821

LIFE

Born in London, the son of a livery stable keeper, and educated at

Enfield. His father died in an accident when Keats was four, and his

mother died of consumption ten years later, leaving Keats an orphan at

fifteen. Apprenticed to a surgeon at Edmonton, in 1816 Keats moved to

Guy's Hospital, where he qualified as a surgeon.

Encouraged by men of letters (including Leigh Hunt), he published his

first volume of poetry in 1817. Although this was not successful, Keats

abandoned medicine to become a full-time poet. The remainder of his

short life was lived at various lodgings, in inns during trips round the

country, and - from 1818 - at the home of a friend, Charles Brown, at

Hampstead.

Exhaustion - the result of an overstrenuous walking holiday, nursing

his dying brother Tom, lack of money, unrequited love for a Hampstead

neighbour's daughter (Fanny Brawne) - and general debilitation, perhaps

caused by self-administered mercury treatment, brought on (1820) 

symptoms recognised by him as the onset of fatal consumption.

In a last attempt to secure health, he sailed for Naples (September 1820)

with his devoted friend, Joseph Severn, who nursed him until his death

in February 1821. 

Keats was buried in the Protestant cemetery at Rome, with the epitaph

written by himself: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water."

Just as inaccurate (as regards the cause of Keats' death) is Shelley's

Adonais (1821) - an elegy on the death of this supreme poet.

PRINCIPAL WORKS

Poems  1817

Endymion  1818

Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems  1820

Life, Letters, and Literary Remains, of John Keats 

                               (ed R Monckton Milnes)  1848

The Letters of John Keats (ed H E Rollins)  1958

THE POEMS

ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE

Published in Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems in

1820.

Typographical note: The word "Provencal" (stanza 2) has a cedilla under

                    the "c" in the original.

TO AUTUMN

Published in Lamia etc in 1820.

LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI

Originally printed in The Indicator of 10 May 1820, this poem can be

found in the second volume of Milne's Life, Letters etc (1848).