Meny

Keats, John

Country/Region:
United Kingdom, Italy
Born:
October 31, 1795
Dead:
February 23, 1821
Genres:
Poetry
Portrait image of John Keats Painting by William Hilton
The English poet John Keats was born in London. His father, who was stable manager at the Swan and Hoop Inn, died in an accident when his son was eight years old. When his mother remarried, Keats and his three younger siblings went to live with their maternal grandfather. Their mother died six years after the father, and Keats became responsible for his siblings. One of his teachers realised he was a gifted child and encouraged his intellectual pursuits. Keats trained as a surgeon at Guy's Hospital, but he abandoned his medical career in order to write poetry. Keats had stayed in contact with his teacher after he left school, and followed his advice to read the radical Examiner, edited by Leigh Hunt who became important for his political and literary education. Keats often visited Hunt at his home, which gave him a sense of family. Through Hunt he became acquainted with Percy Bysshe Shelley, who later supported him in his literary career. When Keats' younger brother died of tuberculosis, he moved in with a family at Wentworth Place, Hampstead, in 1818 where he met Fanny Brawne. This is now a museum. In the garden there is a tree with a plaque that explains that it was by this tree that the poet wrote his most famous poem, "Ode to a Nightingale". In 1820, Keats went to Rome to try and alleviate the symptoms of his tuberculosis. He travelled in the company of the painter Joseph Severn who assisted him until his death the following year. Keats was buried at the Protestant cemetery in Rome. Shelley wrote an elegy, Adonaïs (1821), in his memory.

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