John Keats A Romantic Poets of Second Generation, was an English lyric poet. He was one of the most important figures of the second generation of romantic poets.
John Keats was born on October 31, 1795 in Rome, Italy to Thomas and France Keats. He had three siblings. In 1803, he attended John Clarke’s School. He took an interest in Classic literature and History. At a very young age, he lost both his parents.
His father died in 1804 when John was eight; his mother died of tuberculosis when John was fourteen. During his time at John Clarke’s school, he found solace and comfort in art and literature.
He became close to his headmaster John Clarke. His headmaster encourage his interested in poetry and literature. Keats’s grandmother took custody of the children. At the age of sixteen, he was an apprentice for the surgeon, Dr Hammond in Edmonton.
When Keats was eighteen, he decided to pursue a career in poetry. Even though he loved writing and reading poems, he continued to work hard towards becoming a surgeon. In 1814, Keats wrote imitation of Spenser.
It was the first step towards his writing career. In 1815, Keats’s entree Guy’s hospital for his doctor training. But soon he gave up his medical career and decided to become a poet.
Keats met Joseph Severn, a young painter who later accompanied him to Rome. Keats also met William Haslam, who became one of his closest friends. Keats published his first poem. To Solitude in 1815. It was also published in The Examiner and was well-received by people he met Leigh Hunt, publisher of The Examiner who later became a vital part of Keats’s literary career.
Hunt introduced him to English poets such as Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Wordsworth. In `1816, john wrote On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer, which earned him the much-deserved reputation as a good poet.
He wrote his next book on the subject of poverty. Even through the book was not well-received; it didn’t stop him from writing. Keats’s Sleeps and poetry, a more serious poem, was written around the same time. The poem ended with the notion of a ‘brotherhood’.
The same year, he started to show signs of tuberculosis. In 1817, Keats’ first volume of poetry Poems was published by the Ollier Brothers. The book didn’t sell very well. In 1818, Keats began to work on his long poem Endymion.
He called his poems “a trial of my powers of imagination”. It was a four- thousands-line poem based on the Greek Myth of the same name. He finished his other work, Isabella, or the pot of Basil, in 1820. Keats spent 1818 taking care of his brother Tom, who was in the final stages of tuberculosis. It was the same disease that had killed their mother.
After Tom died, Keats moved to his friend Charles Brown’s house in Hampstead. There, he met the eighteen-year-old Fanny Brawne, with whom he fell in love.
In 1819, Keats moved to London. He published Isabella, a poem about a woman who fell in love with a man who was below her social class. The same year, he finished The Eve of St. Agnes and dropped his first version of Hyperion, based on a Greek myth.
He took no breaks and kept on writing, producing works like the Ode to Psyche, Ode to a Nightingale and Ode to Melancholy. While he was in England, he released one of his most beautiful works, to autumn. It was based on the ripening of fruit, the sleepy workers and the maturing sun accompanying the season of autumn.
The poem showed Keats’ true writing style. In 1820, his final volume of Lamia, Isabella, The Eve St Agnes and other poems was published. After that, his health started to deteriorate, yet he continued working.
Most of his works were inspired by his own relationships. It was claimed that Keats gave Fanny Brawne a love sonnet, Bright Star, in which he declared his love for her.
John Keats died or tuberculosis at the age of 25 in Rome on 23rd February, 1821. He was buried in the Protestant cemetery in Rome. On his tombstone, the words ‘Here lies one whose name was writ in water’ were carved at his request. He was a Romantic at heart, and the same was seen his poetry.
Keats’ house Went worth Palace and Rome were turned into memorials as, a tribute to the great poet. Keats’ letters and manuscripts were archived at the Harvard University library, British Library and in Keats House. For the school of Romantic poetry, British Keats-Shelley Memorial Association was founded.