“A thing of beauty is a joy forever”, wrote John Keats. Keats penned poems of lasting beauty. ‘I Stood Tip-toe Upon a Little Hill’, and ‘Sleep and Poetry’, are among his great works. ‘On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer’, is his most celebrated sonnet. ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’, is his most widely known poem.
The odes of Keats were remarkable in their own right. ‘Ode on Melancholy’, ‘Ode to a Nightingale’, and ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’, are his outstanding odes. Each ode was a poetic meditation on a chosen subject. ‘To Autumn’, was written in September, 1819. The other odes were created between the months of March and June in the same year.
The use of legend and striking imagery are features of his poetry. Keats’ first published book was ‘Poems 1817’.
Keats was born on October 31st 1795, in London. A licensed apothecary, Keats chose to write poetry. His choice was proved right only after his death. Tuberculosis took his life on 23rd February, 1821 and he was buried at the Protestant Cemetery in Rome. John Keats was only twenty five at the time of his death.
By the end of the 19th century, Keats is recognized as a prominent, and one of the most adored poets of all time.