Excerpt from: The Keats Kingdom website
INTERESTING FACT
Keats when he became a published poet collected every scrap of paper
containing his earlier poems and burnt them as he considered them to be awful.
Even with his interest in poetry Keats continued working hard on his studies in becoming a surgeon/
apothecary where he worked so hard that he began to jump ahead of the curriculum. In 1814 he
wrote his first poem; 'Lines in Limitation of Spenser'. In the same year Keats continued his surgical
studies in Guy's Hospital as a student and 1816 he became a Licentiate of the Society of
Apothecaries. At this point his love of poetry became his main ambition and his surgical career was
left behind. Also in this year he meets the editor of a liberal paper 'The Examiner who was Leigh Hunt
who became a great friend of Keats. Keats' first published poem was called 'Ode to Solitude' which
was published in The Examiner'. It is said that Keats wanted his poetry published for financial
reasons. The poem was received as being acceptable and a good attempt, but it wasn't till later in the
year when his poem 'On First Looking on Chapman's Homer,' that his potential and talent as a poet
was known and it gave him the reputation as the poet to watch.
His first book of poetry appeared 3rd March 1817, although the book didn't actually sell very well.
John was depressed by this but kept writing. Percy Shelley (his friend) then challenged Keats to an
epic poetry competition over the summer. For the competition Keats wrote Endymion, although Keats
didn't finish the poem within the time limit so technically Shelley won the competition. Keats was now
the sought after poet in London and his life became a whirl of parties and dances, even though Keats
didn't like crowds very much.
In June of 1818 Keats became paranoid that he only had another three years to live; he knew he
would die from tuberculosis. He spent most of this summer touring Scotland and its lakes. Also by
now he had already written his most famous poems and he felt that he still hadn't reached his peak
and left a big enough mark in the literary world. His brother George now announces that he is
immigrating to Illinois with his new wife. His other brother Thomas at the same time begins to show
signs of suffering from consumption and Keats was needed to take care of him. John moved with his
brother to Hampstead. And to add more pressure and emotion into Keats' life he had just fallen in
love with a young woman called Frances Brawne (aka Fanny- and if you can say this name without
giggling like a little child or can keep a straight face then I'm very impressed). This depressed and
overwhelmed him as most situations did in his life, because he realized that he was too poor to marry
Fanny. He also didn't really believe in the institution of marriage as he thought it would stunt his
creativity and that he would become domesticated, which meant there wasn't really much of a future
in any romance with Fanny. Keats tried to loose himself in his latest poem Hyperion.
INTERESTING FACT When Keats became ill he was unable to have any physical contact with
Fanny, so they would send letters to each other and would see each other through glass screens.
Tom died in December 1818. John had nursed him throughout the illness. John should have received
£500 from Tom's estate but Abbey, another guardian, decreed that Keats was unable to get the
money until his sister Francis had turned 21. It turned out that Abbey had in fact taken nearly £1000
from Keats' grandmother's estate, although this did not come out until about a year after Keats' death.
To make matters worse his brother George, who by now had moved to America, had squandered his
money on gambling and was in desperate need of financial aid from John to pay off his gambling
debts. To try and get some money for himself and his brother, he persuaded his publisher to issue
another volume of his poetry, but this wasn't exactly a success. Even with no money himself, he gave
George any money that was left over from the family's estate. Keats was now dependent on his
friends, people like Leigh Hunt (who had got married and settled down) and Charles Brown. In early
1820 Keats was showing signs that he had developed consumption, coughing up blood. It was
around this time that Charles began arrangements for sending Keats to Italy without Keats'
knowledge or consent. The reason Charles wanted to send his friend to Italy, was because of the
warm climate which at the time was considered a cure for consumption. John did not want to go as he
could not bear the thought of being parted from Fanny, but felt incapable of arguing with his friend.
Keats left for Italy in September 1820 accompanied by his friend Joseph Severn (an artist). The
journey to Rome was unbearable and no doubt affected Keats and made the illness worse. They
were also, on arriving in Italy, quarantined for 12 days; they were unable to dock and were forced to
stay on the ship and continue living in the damp, cramped environment of the cabin. Once in Rome
the two men lodged in a small apartment just above the Spanish steps. John was forbidden from
writing poetry and was only allowed to read the dullest of books as they thought too much excitement
would aggravate the illness. Keats became depressed again and refused to open any letters from
Fanny as it only reminded him of how much he missed her and how he was unable to be with her. In
December of that year Keats attempted to commit suicide by taking laudanum (a poison) but Severn
was able to stop him. Later, Keats (in a delirious state from the consumption and starvation) would
rant at Severn for trying to stop him and would even begin to accuse his friends of trying to poison
him back in London.
On the 23rd of February 1821, Keats died. He was only 25 years old.
Fanny on hearing the news for
a few weeks, appeared fine, but then suddenly fell ill. Later, after recovering from her illness she
began to wear widow's weeds. Keats requested that on his tombstone all that would be written was
"Here Lies one whose name was writ in water". However Charles Brown felt that this was too short
and had this carved into the tombstone:
"This Grave contains all that was Mortal of a YOUNG ENGLISH POET Who on his Death Bed, in the
Malicious Power of his Enemies, Desired these Words to be engraved on his Tomb Stone 'Here lies
One Whose Name was writ in Water"
He was buried on the 26th February in the Protestant Cemetery. An autopsy was performed on him
just before he was buried, showing that his lungs were completely destroyed and it was commented
that it was a surprise that he had lasted this long.