Who was John Keats?
Poet.
Date and Place of Birth:
31st October 1795. London, England.
Family Background:
Son of Thomas Keats and Frances Jennings. In
1802 his father took over the management of France's father's livery
stable and Inn. In 1804 he died in a riding accident.
Education:
John Clarke’s School, Enfield, London.
Chronology/Biography of John Keats:
1797: Birth of his
Brother George.
1799: Birth
of his Brothers Thomas and Edward (Edward died in infancy).
1802: Family
moved to Enfield, London.
1803: Birth
of his sister Frances.
1804: Death
of Keats's father Thomas. Mother remarried to Rawlings and disappeared.
1805: Death
of his Grandfather.
1809: His
Mother returns to Enfield but is seriously ill and dies. Keats is
apprenticed to an Apothecary in Edmonton.
1816: First
poem “Oh Solitude” published. Becomes a licensed Apothecary.
1816: Keats
meets Percy Bysshe Shelley. Takes
lodgings in Hampstead, London.
Keats House in Hampstead, London. The building on the right
is now the local library.
(© Anthony Blagg)
1817: Visits
the Isle of Wight and Oxford. Meets William
Wordsworth.
1818: His
brother George leaves for the USA Keats goes on a walking tour of
Scotland with Charles Brown. Meets Fanny Brawne. Death of his brother
Tom. Moves to Wentworth Place, Hampstead.
1819: Keats visits
Chichester with Brown but has to return due to illness. Returns
to London and takes rooms in the City. Moves back to Hampstead in
October and becomes secretly engaged to Fanny Brawne. Meets Samuel
Taylor Coleridge on a walk on Hampstead Heath. Brother George
visits England.
1820: Begins
his last illness in February. Moves to lodgings in Kentish Town.
Moves in with Leigh-Hunt after a major Haemorrage. Moves into the
Brawne household in the autumn for a month. On doctors advice sails
to Italy in September.
1821: Keats
takes up lodgings next to the Spanish Steps in Rome where his friend
the painter Joseph Severn nurses him.
Written Works:
- 1817:
"Poems".
- 1818: "Endymion".
- 1819: "Ode
to the Nightingale".
- 1820:
"Lamia". "Isabella". "Eve of St. Agnes".
"Hyperion."
- (1878):
"Letters to Fanny Brawne".
Marriage:
Never married though engaged to Fanny Brawne.
Date and Place of Death:
23rd February 1821. Rome, Italy of Tuberculosis.
The Spanish Steps, Rome.
Keats died in the building on the right which is now a museum.
(© Anthony Blagg)
Age at Death:
25.
Site of Grave:
English Protestant Cemetery, Rome, Italy.
Places of Interest:
CUMBRIA:
Dove Cottage and Museum, Grasmere, LA22 9SH.
(Wordsworth Trust).
Castlerigg. (described in "Hyperion").
Tun Inn, Ireby.
DORSET:
Lulworth Cove composed "Bright Star"
after a sailing trip.
LONDON:
Keats House, Wentworth Place, Keats Grove, Hampstead,
NW3 2RR.
