Who was John Keats?
John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English Romantic poet. He studied to become a doctor but decided to become a poet.
In 1817, he published his first book, Poems and in 1818, Endymion. In the same year, he fell in love with Fanny Brawne but sick with tuberculosis, he postponed plans for marriage.
In 1820, he went to Italy to regain his health but died in Rome in the following year, at twenty-five years of age.
Although his work was in publication for only four years before his death, he was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets together with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Many critics did not think highly of his poetry during his lifetime but his reputation grew after his death. At the end of the 19th century, he was one of the most beloved of all English poets.
He had a significant influence on many poets and writers. Today his poems and superb letters are some of the most popular and most analyzed in English literature.
Jorge Luis Borges said that his first encounter with Keats was the most significant literary experience of his life.
Almost 200 years later, the film Bright Star (2009) depicts the three-year romance between John Keats and Fanny Brawne, from 1818 until his death in 1821, starring Ben Whishaw as the poet. Below is the trailer
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