John Keats, poetry, and the romance of a short life
On burning brightly and finding artistic validation in death
It’s time to revel in some early 19th century English romance with the poster boy of tragedy and posthumous artistic validation.
John Keats, the bright star, was the very personification of a young romantic. He was everything the poet stereotype brings to your mind: boyish, indulgent, fragile, star-crossed, and exceptionally talented.
And perhaps there’s a close association because Keats is so widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of all time. His work and, quite frankly, his tragic death, have influenced so many of poetry’s powerhouse writers, like T.S. Eliot, William Butler Yeats, Lord Alfred Tennyson, and as we learned in an earlier episode, Oscar Wilde.
So why exactly is Keats such a well-loved literary hero? To answer that, we have to travel back to 18th Century Great Britain.
Don’t want to read? Listen to this story and hear a reading of “Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art” on the tiff loves words podcast.
In the middle of London and in the midst of war
John Keats was born in London on Halloween in 1795. At that time, London was in the middle of the…
