John Keats (1795 - 1821)
John Keats, born in 1795, was a famous English poet of the Romantic Movement. One of the five children of Thomas and Frances Keats, he was born in Moorefields, London. His father died in 1804, when Keats was only 8 years old. His mother remarried only after two months. However the marriage went bad, and Frances left her husband. Due to the law, she had to relinquish custody of the children, leaving them with their grandmother, Alice Jennings. His mother did return years later, however she had began to drink and had become ill and bedridden. She died in 1810, from tuberculosis. Her death had a great impact on Keats as he was now old enough to understand her death and witness her life fade away, transforming him from a bright boy into a reserved young man who became absorbed in reading. His bother, Tom, would later succumb to tuberculosis as well, despite John’s tireless efforts to nurse him back to health.
He received his education at John Clarke's academy in Enfield from 1803 to 1811. Here he developed his love of nature and experienced a traditional life of an English schoolboy. Importantly, he made friends with Cowden Clarke, the headmaster’s son, who introduced him to romantic tales, mythology, the music of Mozart and Handel, and liberal opinions of politics.
However at age fifteen, Keats’ course in education was abruptly changed when Richard Abbey, who was the Keats children’s guardian, assumed responsibility of the family. Being a practical minded man, he bound Keats as an apprentice to an apothecary and surgeon. In 1815 he left the apprenticeship to attend United Hospitals of Guy's and St. Thomas's, becoming a medical student. Keats was fascinated with medicine as it helped him to understand nature, and immersed himself in his work. However, Keats was lonely at the time and turned to books and poetry. As his medical interests faded, his passion for poetry grew.
Though he began to focus less medicine and more on poetry he saw the two professions as deeply connected. Both carried the “idea of doing some good for the world." He thought the role of a poet was like a physician, in that a poet, "pours out a balm upon the world" (The Fall of Hyperion). Keats believed the highest achievement in poetry was the ability to lose personal identity in the existence of others.
His poetry was also influenced by his political convictions and opinions of justice. His associated with political activists such as Leigh Hunt and Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Keats' first volume of poems was published in 1817. After his brother’s death in 1818, he moved to Hampstead into a house now known as Keats House. There he continued to publish much poetry and completed a second volume of poetry by 1820.
He fell in love with Fanny Brawne in 1818, and they became engaged. They never married, but remained together until his death. Though his illness and devotion to poetry strained their romance, it is said that his heartache over leaving her for a trip to Rome in 1820 contributed to his death.
Keats set out to Rome in October 1820 with a friend. Bad traveling conditions, and a hard journey, escalated his illness to a severity. Then, his health seemed to be improving after reaching Rome in 1821. However, he knew that his end was near, writing to a friend, “I have an habitual feeling of my real life having past, and that I am leading a posthumous existence." He was only twenty six at the time of his death.
Despite his extremely short career he contributed as much to the world of poetry as many poets do in a lifetime. What he was able to accomplish in such short of a time is amazing and speaks to his immense talent as a writer.