Keats

keets, John, (1795-1821), an English poet. He was the son of a London stablekeeper, but was early left an orphan. He was educated as a physician, but, beyond practice in a London hospital, gave himself up to writing poetry. He suffered from consumption. In 1820 he went to Italy for his health. He died at the age of twenty-five. It is said that bitter, uncalled for criticisms in the reviews of the day hastened his death. During his lifetime he was closely associated with the poet Shelley, whose Adonais, written in memory of Keats, ranks as an elegy with Milton's Lycidas. It may be regarded as Keats' monument. Keats and Shelley lie together in the Protestant burying ground in Rome. In his Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics Palgrave finds room for thirteen of Keats' shorter poems. Keats' longer poems are Endymion, Hyperion, and Lamia. The more noted of his shorter productions are Ode to a Nightingale, and Ode to a Grecian Urn. Although Keats is not the poet of young people, his Eve of St. Agnes, founded on an old Scotch superstition, is not difficult. It is certainly one of the most perfect poems in the English language. Keats' oft quoted sentence, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever," is found in his Endymion.

No poet who has done so little, bears a higher fame.--Mrs. Oliphant.

No one else in English poetry, save Shakespeare, has in expression quite the fascinating felicity of Keats, his perfection of loveliness.--Matthew Arnold.