John Keats, born in the thirty-first of October of the year 1795, is one of the great English romantic poets of the era; he lived until the twenty-third of February 182i. That John Keats became the poet that is known and loved today is quite fascinating, as his father had worked in a stable caring for horses; it was only through a series of rather painful events – such as the death of his father, the death of a grandfather, his mother’s failed remarriage, and the death of a sibling. All of these culminated with the family moving in with Alice Jennings, their maternal grandmother. There, Keats attended a school that introduced him to literature and its wonders; but his love affair with it proved short-lived when his mother died in 1810, after which he was forced into attempting to pursue a life in medicine. Four years later, John Keats left his apprenticeship and effectively devoted more of his time to his love of literature.
His first works were written in Winchester, after which he found himself caring for his sick brother following his grandmother’s death. Following his brother’s death, he moved to Hampstead, where he engaged in an ardent affair with a Miss Fanny Brawne (who had a bad reputation). Eventually, John Keats had to move to Italy because his tuberculosis deteriorated his health; the affair ended thus. The move to Italy proved to be ineffective; John Keats died, despite the care bestowed upon him. His tombstone famously bears the words “Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water” rather than his name. His death was blamed, by his friend and another great poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, on Keats’ work, “Endymion”. Still, the words of Keats are recognized as beautiful and profound, and it is likely that they will live for a long time yet.
