Eng2020

https://youtu.be/rHIUo00VihM

British

Romanticism

John Keats (1795-1821) Selected Poems British Romanticism The epitaph on John Keats' grave in Italy reads: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water." The  words on his tombstone signify the short, tragic life of this Romantic poetic genius. Keats, like   many  of  the  Romantic poets  before  him, was  influenced by  Spenser, Shakespeare,  and  Milton.   When  describing  the  genius  of  Shakespeare  in  a  letter  to  his brother,  Keats   coined   the  phrase   "negative   capability,"  or  the   ability   to   accept   the transcendence  of   mystery  without  the  need  of  rational  explanation.  Keats  used  this ability, as well as his  understanding and empathy for human suffering, to create some of the period's greatest poetry.

Keats' own  story  is  one  of  tremendous  loss, a  story  only  surpassed by  the  beauty  he  finds  in  nature  and  relates  in  his  powerful  verse.  His  father  died  when  he  was   young, leaving a wife  and four children financially insecure. His  mother left home, abandoning  the children to the care of grandparents. When Keats' mother returned, she was dying of  tuberculosis. A few years later, Keats' brother Tom would succumb to the same disease. When  Keats   began  coughing  up  blood,  he  knew  from  experience  what  his  limited  life would  be   like.   Never  financially   able   to   marry,  Keats   nevertheless   enjoyed  a  brief engagement with  Fanny Brawne before his death at the age of twenty-five.

From  the  depth  of  his  suffering,  we  inherit  some  of  most  sublime  lines  in  English  poetry: