intrawest: one step ahead of the

1. John Keats:

His Life and Work

2. Keats Family Background

October 31, 1795, John Keats is born, the first child of Thomas and Frances Keats. Brother George is born in 1797 Brother Tom is born in 1799 1803 Sister Fanny is born

3. Keats�s Education

1803 enters John Clarke�s School at Enfield Becomes friends with Charles Cowden Clarke Clarke encourages Keats�s interest in reading Becomes an avid reader after death of mother

4. Medical Career

After death of father, mother, and grandmother, Richard Abbey, guardian, takes Keats out of school and in 1810, he is apprenticed to the apothecary Dr. Hammond of Edmonton Continues to visit Clarke several times a month to read and discuss literature. 1815 trains at Guy�s Hospital 1816 begins work as a dresser Continues to read poetry and publishes his first poem, �O Solitude�

5. Summer 1816

Keats goes on vacation to Margate with his brother Tom Begins writing letters to his friends Ideas in letters helped shape his views on poetry

6. �On First Looking Into Chapman�s Homer�

Written October 1816 after spending evening with Clarke reading Chapman�s translation of Homer Keats begins to meet the group of friends known as �the Hunt Circle� who will influence him for the rest of his life Keats decides to abandon medicine for poetry

7. 1817

March 1817 Haydon takes Keats to view the Elgin Marbles Keats writes two Elgin Marbles sonnets Vision of artistic greatness Keats publishes his first volume Poems Meets Wordsworth for the first time

8. Endymion

March 1817 Keats begins poem Considered a �trial of invention� Begins work on the poem at Isle of Wight Finishes poem in November

9. 1818

Crisis year for Keats July-August Keats takes walking tour of Lake District and Scotland with Charles Brown Becomes ill on carriage ride home Returns home to nurse his brother Tom Tom dies of consumption Begins Hyperion

10. 1819

January writes �Eve of St. Agnes� April-May writes �La Belle Dame sans Merci� and the great Odes. Keats moves to Wentworth place Meets and falls in love with Fanny Brawne; becomes engaged to Fanny Experiences first signs of tuberculosis Begins and abandons �The Fall of Hyperion�

11. 1820

Keats has a severe haemorrhage and is confined to his house Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes and other poems published and well-reviewed September sails for Italy with Joseph Severn November 30 writes his last known letter

12. 1821

February 23 Keats dies at 26 Piazza di Spagna, Rome February 26 Keats is buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome