John Keats

Abstract

Among the many writers and poets of Romanticism, John Keats got out of the way and gained an important position, even though he lived only twenty-five years: his inheritance is anyway copious and irreplaceable. He got acquainted with young intellectuals, among who illustrious names excel, such as Leigh Hunt, John Hamilton Reynolds and Benjamin Robert Haydon. The youngest of his brothers Thomas, ill of tuberculosis, died in 1818, while his brother George emigrated in America. This was the time when he met Fanny Brawne, an unfulfilled love, especially because of economical reasons. Soon, even worse problems aggravated the situation: the genetic disease of his family was about to attack him too. To improve his health, he followed the advice of his doctor and embarked toward Italy, where a better weather was suitable to his lungs. He arrived in Rome in November and his accommodation was in Piazza di Spagna, now consecrated to his and Shelley’s memory and where Keats lived a posthumous life. A few months later, he died and he wanted to be written on his grave “here lies one whose name was writ in water” . His contribution to poetry derives not only from the sonnets and his letters, but also from the Odes and he tried even writing Plays. However, his success has increased by many operas: Lamia, Isabella or the Pot of Basil, St Agnes’s Eve, La Belle Dame Sans Merci; Hyperion represents a crucial activity in his poetical career even if it remained incomplete, whereas large place of pages is occupied by the four books of Endymion, based on a Grecian myth; on the other hand, in the fragment St Mark’s Eve he anticipates the pre-Raphaelite school. Certainly his readings of the masterpieces of the authors who preceded him inspired him and eventually taught him as mentors how to compose. Spenser was his guide in particular for the technical features of the metric system, but he also represented an important poetical adviser, as Shakespeare and Milton were.