Impending death influenced his poetry.

John Keats was born in Moorfields, London in 1795 (portico). His father, an English coachman died when Keats was eight years old, leaving him an orphan (Student handbook 294). Keats attended school at Enfield and worked on translating Virgil's Aeneid. John Keats was the apprentice to an apothecary surgeon in 1810, but his friend and critic Leigh Hunt convinced him to leave the life of medicine to pursue poetry. In 1816, Keats officially left the medical life and published his first book of poetry in 1817. The summer of 1818, Keats toured England and Scotland. He then moved to Hampstead after the death of his brother Tim. Later that year Keats fell in love with his neighbor Fanny Brawne, however they never married. Keats died in Rome in 1820 of tuberculosis after releasing his second volume of poetry (portico).

The first poem that shows that Keats lifetime filled with death influenced his poetry is "On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again" (utoronto). In this poem, lines 2 and 3 he is telling the Syren bird to quiet itself and leave its songs to another day. This is not necessar

anymore. Not only is it the need for his soul to be locked away that points towards Keats' painful life, but his use of words. The words "Casket of my Soul" have any eerie tone to them and connect so closely to death that it is hard to believe that the connection could come from anything but the death of his family members. The entire tone of the text of the poem emphasizes the dreary mood. Keats picked words like "Amen" to connect to God, and the after life. He also used words like lulling though to ease the mood and give a hint of comfort. Darkness plays such a strong role in this poem too. The use of dark descriptions and the word darkness still brings the connotation and feel of fear, but Keats changes the usual use of light and dark. Typically, light is the symbol of good and darkness is the symbol of bad. In this poem however, light is not seen as good but as bad because it brings memories of the past bad occurrences of the past days. Keats sees darkness as a good !

"Exhibitions on Keats" The British Library, 1997, March 28,2000, http://potico.bl.uk/exhibitions/keats

Keats refers to once he has made the walk through life, not to let him wander through a dream in line 12. This could mean that he does not wish to spend his old ages as a mindless man, or that he does not want his afterlife to be void of activity and worth. Lines 13 and 14 refer to the Egyptian Myth of the Phoenix. This was a bird that lived between 500 and 600 years and then it would consume itself in fire. The phoenix would then rise out of the ashes rejuvenated. The phoenix is used as a symbol of immortality. For this reason, lines 13 and 14 can be interpreted to mean that Keats did not want to die, but wanted to be born again to live the life he wanted.

The last poem used to show the influence of death and sadness on Keats' poetry was a -prediction of Keats' own death. Probably one of John Keats most famous poems was written by him not long before his own death. This poem is called, "When I have fears that I may cease to be"(Complete 237). This poem gives insight in to what John Keats was thinking before his own approaching death. Line 1 says nothing more than when I fear my death. Lines 2 through 4 are about Keats' fear that he would not be able to write everything in his mind and express his feelings. Lines 5 through 8 describe Keats' fear of never being able to look out on a starry sky again and being able to be part of such a beautiful night. The closing lines speak of his never being able to see the face of the woman he loves and revel in her love. The very closing of the poem is Keats' description of standing alone until everything important in the world dies. Keats was afraid of leaving the things he loved. H!

The Complete Poems o

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1860
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)