John Keats 1795-1821
Early Life      A. Family Background      B. Desolate Growth in Adolescence  Apprenticeship of Physician and Poet      A. Tryout Years      B. Resolution               Later Life       A. Becoming a Real Poet B. Romantic Relation C. Strikes in Life ¡@
Early Life
¡@	In the 25 years that he lived, John Keats strived to choose his own path and to shine.  Though it was not until he passed away that his poems were highly appreciated, the affection and zeal Keats conveyed in his works indeed has been touching people’s heart and soul for long. A.     Family Background Rumor said that Keats was born in a stable.  Whether it was true or not, Keats was the first child of Thomas Keats and Frances Jennings Keats.  After him, Keats had two younger brothers, George Keats and Thomas Keats, and also a sister, Fanny Keats.  Keats attended school at Enfield since he was eight years old.  His brothers later joined him at Enfield.  The family was initially prospering with business and the household until 1804 when Thomas Keats, the father died due to his fall from a horse.  Within a very short time, Frances Keats remarried but left her children to her parents.  A strong woman, Alice Whalley Jennings, Keats grandmother took care of her orphaned grandchildren and made Richard Abbey, a tea merchant her grandchildren’s guardian.  Though Frances Keats later returned to her family in 1808, she died of tuberculosis.  This disease took not only the mother but also three of the Keats children.  Tom (Thomas) Keats died first in London, John Keats next in 1821 in Rome, and at last George Keats in America. B.     Desolate Growth in Adolescence After the father died of the accident, Keats realized that he, as the first child and the big brother for three younger brothers and sister, must take care of the family.  From a real boyish child who always fought with children of his age, Keats was enlightened by John Clarke, the headmaster of the school, and started to contact literature.  Clarke’s son Cowden Clarke remained Keats faithful friend in his short lifetime.  Throughout his life, Keats was surrounded by the shadow of death and consumption.  At the age of sixteen, Abbey considered doctor a good choice of work for Keats, so Keats was apprentice to Thomas Hammond.  TOP
Apprenticeship of Physician and Poet ¡@
¡@	A.     Tryout Years Clarke taught Keats French and Latin at school and later Cowden Clarke introduced him Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene, which exploited Keats imagination.  In 1814, Keats wrote his first poem when he was eighteen.  At the same time, Cowden brought in Leigh Hunt, a critic and the editor of The Examiner, to Keats.  It was possibly Hunt’s encouragement that made Keats compose his first political poem.  Keats’ intention to draw attention of the public was answered, but some critics regard Keats unwise to take side with Hunt.  B.     Resolution By the time of 1815, Keats served as a dresser at Guy’s Hospital.  Writing poetry became Keats’ prior concern rather than his job.  As Hunt singled out Keats’ poetry in The Examiner, Keats started to consider Hunt’s proposal of publishing his poetry as a book.  Meditating upon his miserable childhood, Keats began to think seriously about becoming a poet.  Finally, Keats made up his mind and quit his work. TOP
Later Life ¡@
¡@	A.     Becoming a Real Poet Keats’ first book of poetry was published in 1817, but did not receive great attention.  Keats became noticed as a poet with publication of Endymion: A Poetic Romance, a product out of the friendly challenge of Shelley.  Endymion manifested Keats brood in human’s limitation.  Though Keats was not too happy about the critics’ severe criticism of Endymion, he was not frustrated either.  Instead, he further proceeded to write his famous odes and other poems. B.     Romantic Relation Keats acquaintance with Fanny Brawne inspired him to write his mature and reputable Eve of St. Agnes.  Although for years, Keats had been on and off connecting with women, Fanny Brawne was his first love and the one that he sincerely considered marrying.  It was his financial situation that kept him from marrying Miss Brawne, and it seemed to be useless for Keats to write to his brother, George, who was himself successful in business but caught in a difficult financial condition in America at that time.  Nevertheless, Keats relationship with Fanny Brawne brought him more works until his symptoms of consumption got worse and worse. C.     Strikes in Life Keats’ youngest brother, Thomas, died in London earlier in December 1818.  Despite his possible engagement to Fanny Brawne in 1819, Keats’ illness and financial difficulties burdened him.  George Keats returned from America to take care of some business matters and Keats went to see him the last time.  On the point of revising his poems approaching to the press, in 1821, Keats departed from Fanny Brawne and left for Rome, where he died on February 23, at the age of twenty-five. TOP
Reference
Coleman, Elliott.  Ed.  Poems of Byron, Keats, and Shelley.  Boston: The Programmed Classics, 1967. Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography, Vol. 3: Writers of the Romantic Period, 1789-1832.  Gale Research, 1992. Encyclopedia of world Biography, 2nd ed.  17vols.  Gale Research, 1998. Thorpe, Alarence DeWitt.  Ed.  John Keats: Complete Poems and Selected Letters.  New York: Odyssey P, 1935. ¡@
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