John Keats

October 31, 2024

Fast Facts
Background
Career Timeline
Why We Love
Surprising Facts
FAQs

John Keats, born on October 31, 1795, was a major romantic poet who wrote “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” “Ode to a Nightingale,” and other famous works. In 1899, the first edition of Keats “Complete Poetical Works” was published. This was almost 80 years after his death. Keats was born in England. As a young man, Keats worked as an apprentice to a surgeon and apothecary. He had a significant influence on a diverse range of poets and writers and as writer Jorge Luis Borges stated that his first encounter with Keats was the most significant literary experience of his life.

Fast Facts

Full Name:

John Keats

Birth date:

October 31, 1795

Death date:

February 23, 1821 (age 25)

Zodiac Sign:

Scorpio

Height:

5' 0"

Net Worth:

$11 million

Background

John Keats was born on October 31, 1795, in England to Thomas and Frances Keats. His zodiac sign was Scorpio. Having finished his apprenticeship with Hammond, Keats registered as a medical student at Guy’s Hospital, now affectionately known as the King’s College London, and began studying there in October 1815. Within a month, he was accepted as a dresser at the hospital and he worked as an assistant to surgeons during operations.

While Keats’s educational career was proceeding smoothly, his personal life was turned upside down when his father died from a skull fracture sustained after falling from his horse. The incident profoundly affected his life and shaped his understanding of the human condition. Financial insecurity resulted from his father’s death. Frances, his mother, remarried, leaving her sons in the care of a grandmother in a village called Edmonton. Prior to his untimely death at the tender age of 25, he was romantically involved with Isabella Jones before famously falling in love with Fanny Brawne. Keats, like his mother, died from tuberculosis, ending his hopes of marrying Ms. Brawne.

Keats is regarded as one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his work having been published only four years before his death. Although his poems were not generally well received by critics while he was still alive, his reputation grew after his death.

Career timeline

1816

His First Poem is Published

The sonnet, “O Solitude,” appears in “The Examiner” in May.

1820

The Early Signs of Tuberculosis

Keats displays increasingly serious symptoms of tuberculosis, suffering two lung hemorrhages in the first few days of February.

1821

The Death of a Poet

Keats dies in Rome on February 23 and is buried in the city's Protestant Cemetery.

1848

The Letters are Published

In the 19th century, critics disregard them as distractions from his poetic works but in the 20th century, they become highly regarded.

2007

The Keats Sculpture

A sculpture of Keats seated on a bench, by sculptor Stuart Williamson, at Guys and St Thomas' Hospital London is unveiled by the Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion.

Why We Love John Keats

He has museums named after him
Wentworth Place, in Hampstead Heath in London, was renamed the 'Keats House Museum' to commemorate the iconic poet. In Rome, a 'Keats–Shelley Memorial House,' a museum housing one of the world's most extensive collections of memorabilia, letters, manuscripts, and paintings relating to Keats and Shelley, is dedicated to them.
A motion picture was created to talk about his life
“John Keats: His Life and Death,” the first major motion picture about the life of Keats, was produced in 1973 byEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc. It was directed by John Barnnes.
He is still celebrated
Keats has been gone for slightly over 200 years yet his work still lives on. This is testament to his mastery and it is the reason modern day writers and poets still celebrate him.

5 Surprising Facts

He was a medical student
Keats worked in his youth as an apprentice to a surgeon and apothecary.
His Highest ranked read
Keats "To Autumn" is one of the most highly regarded English-language poems.
He was friends with a fellow writer
Keats was a friend of fellow Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Writing was his gift
From 1814, Keats had two bequests, held in trust for him until his 21st birthday — around $800 was willed by his grandfather John Jennings.
His legacy lives on
In 2022, acclaimed literary biographer and critic Lucasta Miller claimed Keats was on the same level as William Shakespeare with his quotable lines and book titles.