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John Keats
John Keats was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculosis at the age of 25. They were indifferently received in his lifetime, but his fame grew rapidly after his death. By the end of the century, he was placed in the canon of English literature, strongly influencing many writers of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1888 called one ode "one of the final masterpieces". Jorge Luis Borges named his first encounter with Keats an experience he felt all his life. Keats had a style "heavily loaded with sensualities", notably in the series of odes. Typically of the Romantics, he accentuated extreme emotion through natural imagery. Today his poems and letters remain among the most popular and analysed in English literature – in particular "Ode to a Nightingale", "Ode on a Grecian Urn", "Sleep and Poetry" and the sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer".
John Keats was born in Moorgate, London, on 31 October 1795, to Thomas and Frances Keats (née Jennings). There is little evidence of his exact birthplace. Although Keats and his family seem to have marked his birthday on 29 October, baptism records give the date as the 31st. He was the eldest of four surviving children; his younger siblings were George (1797–1841), Thomas (1799–1818), and Frances Mary "Fanny" (1803–1889), who later married the Spanish author Valentín Llanos Gutiérrez. Another son was lost in infancy. His father first worked as a hostler at the stables attached to the Swan and Hoop Inn owned by his father-in-law, John Jennings, an establishment he later managed, and where the growing family lived for some years. Keats believed he was born at the inn, a birthplace of humble origins, but there is no evidence to support this. The Globe pub now occupies the site (2012), a few yards from modern Moorgate station. Keats was baptised at St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate, and sent to a local dame school as a child.
John Keats died in Rome on 23 February 1821. His body was buried in the city's Protestant Cemetery.
Books by John Keats
Fragment of an Ode to Maia
This Weekly Poem is taken from The Poetical Works Of John Keats (1817).
Lamia
"Lamia" is a narrative poem written by the English poet John Keats, which first appeared in the volume Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St Agnes and Other Poems, published in July 1820. The poem was written in 1819, during the famously productive period t...
Endymion
In "Endymion," John Keats crafts an epic poem that transports readers to a realm of enchantment and explores the depths of human desire. The story revolves around Endymion, a young shepherd who becomes enamored with the moon goddess, Cynthia. Captiv...
Ode to Autumn
LibriVox volunteers bring you 15 different recordings of Ode to Autumn by John Keats. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of November 11th, 2007.
O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell
LibriVox volunteers bring you 16 different recordings of O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell by John Keats. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of May 11th, 2008.
Ode (Bards Of Passion And Of Mirth)
LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of Ode (Bards Of Passion And Of Mirth) by John Keats. This was the weekly poetry project for May 17th, 2009.
Lines on The Mermaid Tavern
LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of Lines on The Mermaid Tavern by John Keats. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for August 15th, 2010.
To Autumn
LibriVox volunteers bring you 8 recordings of To Autumn by John Keats. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for November 21st, 2010.To Autumn" is the final work in a group of poems known as Keats's "1819 odes".He composed "To Autumn" after a walk...
Poems 1817
Early poems of this famous English lyric poet, in which he openly expresses indebtedness to, and reverence for, his poetic predecessors, especially Spenser, into whose chivalric world he boldly ventures; and also for Milton, and the classic poets. Th...
Letters of John Keats to His Family and Friends
These are the letters of John Keats, as written to family, close friends and others during his brief, eventful years as an artist. (However, the editor chose to exclude love letters to Fanny Brawne, respecting their private nature.) The celebrated Ke...
Sonnets of John Keats
The superb poetic skill and exquisite sensitivity of John Keats is brilliantly illustrated in this collection of meticulously selected sonnets. Keats had a passion for poetry as he had for life itself. His own life, although cut short at an early age...