John keats short biography
John Keats
| English poet Date of Birth: Country: Great Britain |
Biography of John Keats
John Keats, the youngest of the major English Romantic poets, was born on October 31, , in Finsbury, North London.
He was the eldest son of T. Keats, a stable worker who later became its manager after marrying the owner's daughter. Keats had three brothers (one of whom died in infancy) and a sister. His father died in April , and his mother remarried shortly after, leaving the children under the care of their maternal grandmother.
Keats' mother died of tuberculosis in , which eventually claimed the lives of all her sons.
From to , Keats attended school in the neighboring town of Enfield.
In , he became an apprentice to a surgeon for four years. During this time, his interest in poetry grew, and he wrote his first poem in In , he passed his exams to become a licensed physician and pharmacist, but it was also the year that marked his emergence as a poet. In May, Keats published his first poem, "To Solitude," and wrote several more sonnets and two longer poems, "I Stood Tiptoe Upon a Little Hill" and "Sleep and Poetry." A year later, he decided to abandon his medical career and fully dedicate his life to poetry.
Keats' early works, inspired by his close connection with nature, exemplify the first stage of his poetic career.
While these poems vividly describe nature, the poetic narrative moves through a series of associations that direct the reader's attention to the creative possibilities of the human mind. Keats found himself aligned with the leading trends of contemporary English artistic life.
John keats biography summary page He ended up nursing Thomas through his final months with tuberculosis, and naturally was greatly shaken by his brother's death in December His letters increasingly praised "knowledge" and "philosophy" over sensitivity and imagination, with Keats understanding philosophy as a receptive and sincere mindset capable of perceiving life as a whole and embracing its contradictions. Keats found himself aligned with the leading trends of contemporary English artistic life. But, Keats, in poems such as Endymion , also wrote challenging poetry striving to challenge established currents of thought and question why things were.By the end of , he had become acquainted with prolific poet and journalist Leigh Hunt, who published Keats' poems and influenced his liberal political views. Keats also formed close friendships with artists Benjamin Robert Haydon and Joseph Severn. He even met the renowned Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. During this time, Keats worked on his first book of poetry, "Poems," which was published in April with a dedication to Hunt.
He also pondered his most ambitious project to date - a 4,line mythological poem about the love of the shepherd Endymion and Cynthia (or Diana), the chaste goddess of the moon. Completed between April and November and published in , the poem "Endymion" served as a source for Keats' later, more mature works.
John keats history That same autumn, Keats met Fanny Brawne, an eighteen-year-old, and fell in love with her. How much of an effect this criticism had on Keats is uncertain, but it is clear that he did take notice of it. Based on the edge of Hampstead Heath he composed five of his six odes. He showed a genuine interest in, and aptitude for, medicine and was accepted as a dresser at Guy's Hospital in London just after starting medical school there.Although the poem suffered from excessive sentimentality and weak structure, it marked a transition in Keats' understanding of poetry. Endymion's pursuit of Cynthia became a metaphor for the poet's thirst for creativity and his search for inspiration, highlighting the stages of human spiritual growth. The poems that followed "Endymion" showed that Keats' poetic imagination was more inclined towards self-reflection and the realities of human existence, with equal interest in tragedy and the fantastical.
His letters increasingly praised "knowledge" and "philosophy" over sensitivity and imagination, with Keats understanding philosophy as a receptive and sincere mindset capable of perceiving life as a whole and embracing its contradictions.
In June , Keats and his friend Charles Brown embarked on a challenging walking tour of the Lake District and Scotland.
However, Keats had to return home due to constant throat pain, where he found his brother Tom in a critical condition due to tuberculosis.
John keats biography summary page by line In a more abstract sense, it shaped Keats' understanding for the human condition, both its suffering and its loss. He also became close to the school's headmaster, John Clarke, who served as a sort of a father figure to the orphaned student and encouraged Keats' interest in literature. Nadia Anjuman. In , they went on a walking tour of northern England and Scotland.Keats spent the entire autumn caring for his dying brother. As a distraction, he immersed himself in working on his epic poem "Hyperion." Although the great work remained unfinished, Keats managed to complete only the first two books. These books showcased the highest point of his creative prowess but also revealed signs of his departure from reality and deeper immersion in abstractions.
He transformed the story of the downfall of the Titans, the primordial gods of Ancient Greece, into a tragic allegory of human suffering and the humanization of gods under the burden of pain and sorrow, an original parable about historical evolution.
John keats biography summary page 1 But within a month, he was back in bed, suffering from a high temperature. Agnes" , which is filled with warmth and vibrant colors but also shadows of darkness, cruelty, corruption, and the tragic ending narrowly avoided by the protagonists. Ralph Fiennes. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below.Tom's death on December 1 abruptly halted Keats' laborious work on "Hyperion." Fragments of the third book, presumably written later, present a myth about the transformation of Apollo, not only into the newly-born god of the sun but also into the god of poetry. Thus, Keats returned to the theme of Endymion - the poet's journey towards self-realization.
The second half of was significant for Keats in two more ways. In April, his published "Endymion" faced severe criticism from leading literary journals, which later gave rise to the legend that Keats was "killed" by scathing reviews. That same autumn, Keats met Fanny Brawne, an eighteen-year-old, and fell in love with her.
John keats biography fanny brawne: He became engaged to Fanny Brawne, but their hopes for an early marriage were dashed. Despite this critical failure, Keats gave an indication he strove only for genius. Contact About Privacy. Famous British People.
This romance colored his best romantic poem, "The Eve of St. Agnes" (), which is filled with warmth and vibrant colors but also shadows of darkness, cruelty, corruption, and the tragic ending narrowly avoided by the protagonists.
The pinnacle of Keats' creative ascent came in April and May, when he composed five odes, four of which - "Ode to Psyche," "Ode to a Nightingale," "Ode on a Grecian Urn," and "Ode on Melancholy" - are considered among the greatest poems in the English language.
In these odes, Keats delves into his own thoughts and experiences to reveal the profound contradictions of his artistic life. Each ode has its compositional core, a central symbol or image - such as the nightingale or the Grecian urn - that engages the poet in a dialogue with himself. A chasm opens between the poet and the bird, human destiny and the timeless, inhuman beauty of nature and art.
During the summer and autumn of , the last months of his creative life, Keats wrote two remarkable works. In the tragic poem "Lamia," he revealed conflicts that became characteristic of him, such as the struggle between imagination and reality, emotion and thought, beauty and truth. His mastery of irony, skepticism, and psychological analysis emerged fully in this work.
Even more striking is the fragment of the revised version of "Hyperion" - "The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream." Keats dared to narrate the story in the first person, transforming the poem about the divine Apollo into a poem of self-search, with the poet himself as the protagonist. It became a contemplation on the purpose of the poet in a world where human beings are doomed to pain, suffering, and death.
After September , Keats did not create anything significant. His financial situation worsened due to his brother George's actions. He became engaged to Fanny Brawne, but their hopes for an early marriage were dashed. On February 3, , Keats began to cough up blood, marking the beginning of what he called his "posthumous existence." Keats managed to prepare and publish the third book of poems, which included most of his greatest works, in July.
In September, he sailed to Italy with his friend Joseph Severn, but it was too late to fight his illness. He spent his final months in terrible agony, plagued by fear of death and tormented by thoughts of Fanny. Keats died in Severn's arms on February 23,