the life of a poet
He started at the pacific. All his men/looked at each other with a wild surmise--/silent, upon a peak in Darien"; "Beauty is truth, truth Beauty, --that is all/ ye know on earth, and all ye need to know"; The author of these and many other lines fixed permanently in the shared consciousness of those who speak English, John Keats was an extremely unlikely candidate for poetic immortality. Born into a working-class family two centuries ago. Orphaned in childhood, his work was subjected to vicious attacks by established literary critics, dead in his mid-twenties from tuberculosis, he overcame all obstacles, not only to write some of the finest poems in the language, but also to form, in the minds of millions of people. John Keats was born in London on October 31, 1795. The first child of Thomas Keats he was a livery-stable keeper. And his wife Frances (Jennings) Keats was a housewife. Three more sons were born one of whom died in infancy. A daughter was born to the couple before Thomas's death in April 1804 from a horse accident. With four very young children to care for. Frances married a man
Keats's first volume entitled simply Poems was published in March 1817 and failed to attract much notice beyond a favorable review from Leigh Hunt. During that time Keats met Fanny Brawne, a young woman who throughout what appears to have been for him at least. Rather tormented relationship was to be the great love of his brief life and to whom he became engaged some time around the end of the year. By December 1818 when his brother Tom died of tuberculosis. On February 3, 1820 Keats had a coughing fit that led him to hemorrhage some dark arterial blood. With his medical training he recognized the gravity of the situation and he told his friend Charles Armitage Brown, "That drop of blood is my death-warrant; I must die." The life of Keats to some degree mythology by biographers and other enthusiasts has done as much as anything to fashion the popular image of the poet as a doomed and tortured soul. Scorned by an uncaring and pouring out his heart in spasms of unrequited love. And his work has likewise done much to shape the common view of poetry as sensuous images expressed in rhapsodic language that, to quote his own lines on the nightingale's song,"oft-times hath/ charmed magic casements, opening on the foam/ Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn." The best of his poems, of course, transcend such stereotypes. Gorgeous as their music may be, they
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 918
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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