John Keats was born October, 1795, and died on the 23d of February,
1821. He was the son of a livery-stable keeper, who had married his
former proprietor's daughter. The parents had wished to educate Keats
and his two brothers, but before Keats was fifteen, both his father and
mother had died. He was then apprenticed to a surgeon at Edmonton, under
whom he remained four years, and then went up to London to complete his
training for a medical degree. This he received in due time and began to
practise, but he found literature so much more attractive that, in about
a year, he gave up his attempt to practise medicine. At about this time
he became acquainted with Leigh Hunt, who had a good deal of influence
upon Keats's literary beginnings. His first volume of poetry, which
appeared in 1817, shows this influence strongly. A year later his
_Endymion_ was published and was so severely criticised by _Blackwood's_
and especially by the _Quarterly_ that Keats took it much to heart; some
have supposed that this attack very much hastened his death. His
brother George had moved to America in 1818, and his brother Tom was now
dying with consumption. Keats nursed him faithfully until his death.
Immediately after this sorrow, he fell deeply in love, but his health
was so greatly impaired that he found it necessary, in 1820, to take a
trip to Italy. He did not grow stronger, however, but died at Rome on
the 23d of February, 1821.
Keats's poetry is noted especially for its sensuous beauty, its
descriptions, and its remarkable reproduction of the Greek and romantic
spirits.