Before Reading Meet John Keats (1795-1821)

John Keats’s life was tragically cut short by illness. Yet despite his early death at 25, he managed to compose some of the most evocative and exquisite poems in the English language.

Early Upheaval Born in 1795 to the manager of a livery stable, Keats spent his early years in a joyful household. These carefree times lasted until 1804, when his father died in a riding accident. In 1810, his mother died from tuberculosis. Despite this upheaval, Keats remained for a time at Enfield school, where a teacher, Charles Cowden Clarke, strongly encouraged his passion for reading and his literary ambitions.

Triumph and Tragedy Beginning in 1818, Keats confronted a series of physical and emotional crises. Overexerting himself during a walking tour that summer, he fell seriously ill and soon showed early symptoms of tuberculosis. In the fall, he watched as his beloved brother Tom endured the final, terrible stages of that disease and died. Adding greatly to his distress during this period was his passionate love for the young Fanny Brawne, whom he had met prior to Tom’s death. Although he became engaged to Fanny, he was prevented by poor health and poverty from marrying her, a situation that caused him severe anguish. Amazingly, in the midst of this misfortune, Keats produced his greatest works. Widely praised by critics, these poems conveyed Keats’s intense longing for Fanny, for immortality, and for the beauty of the natural world.

An Early End In the fall of 1820, as his illness progressed, Keats followed the advice of friends and moved to Italy in search of a milder climate. He died less than six months later and was buried in Rome under an epitaph he had composed for himself: “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.”

While Reading

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 949