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Keith Sutherland

Ms. Cook

English II, Period IV

7 December, 2007

John Keats

John Keats is an amazing poet whose style and writing technique inspired many and

contributed to the new era of romanticism. Although Keats had many unfortunate catastrophes in

his short life, he made the best of it by turning his emotions into poems. He used a wide range of

vocabulary and sensual imagery to turn his exact feelings into words. His intricate mind made it

possible for him to compose complex, yet simple poems. John Keats was a lively and brilliant

old-English poet whose works were often overlooked.

John Keats, born in 1795, lived a very eventful and unfortunate life, which helped shape

his poetry. At a very age both his mother and his father passed away, increasing responsibility

and strain on his life (Wright, 3). Due to these tragedies he chose to write about the romanticism

and sensual imagery his parents lacked. His writing helped him cope with the stress and fears of

losing his parents. Keats began writing poetry in his teens and published his first book, Poems, in

1817, which received very harsh criticism by the poetic world (Pape). His determination to write

poetry was not deterred by the critics. As a result his poetry only continued to get better as the

years went on. Sadly, John Keats died in 1821, at the age of 25 from tuberculosis, ironically

increasing the popularity of his poetry (Mongello). People didn’t truly appreciate Keats’ work

until his death where it flourished. His poetic experiments using romance carried well into the

19th century inspiring others. John Keats used poetry to escape the many tragedies of his life, in

which defining his style.

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Keats is a distinct poet in which his elaborate word choice and sensual imagery

characterize his style of poetry. He found inspiration in the extravagant and sensory word play of

the 16th century and also admired the works of many previous poets (Mongello). He was

determined not to be another monotonous poet and make a stand to prove himself. Poems about

love and romance were not well known in his time and he chose this to establish his uniqueness.

Although his choice of vivid imagery and sensual style may not have had a hit with critics in his

short lifetime, it certainly influenced many English poets of the era (Pape). John was ahead of his

time with his poetry, which brought the dislikes of many. His poems were not fully understood

by several and confused others. Keats was a growing poet whose individuality and style brought

a new era of romance into the world after his young life ended abruptly.

Keats’ “Endymion” is about beauty and love and how everybody can experience it in

some way or another. In this poem it says, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever (Wright, 34).” This

means that something that is truly beautiful, like love for example, will always be there and

never go away. Some things may be pleasing at the moment but if they are not still there in the

end and dependable, it is not true beauty. “Endymion”, while still displaying some of the flaws of

Keats’ earlier poetry, was also graced with mythological, poetical, and artistic imagery

(Mongello). The story told in the poem is about mythological times of the Greek. The Greek felt

very strongly towards the idea of beauty and love therefore Keats chose them to relate to this

poem. Keats used the well-known concept of beauty and love to attempt to connect and relate

with his audience. John’s “Sleep and Poetry” is about the benefits of sleep in all its

mysterious faucets, such as tranquility, its regenerative powers, and the ability to induce strong

imaginative visions. Near the end of the poem it says, “These lines and howsoever thy be done, I

leave them as a father does his son (Pape).” Keats is referring to when he was a young boy and
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his father died in a tragic horse accident, therefore leaving him. He is relating it to how he is

going to end the poem by leaving the words as they are written, just as his father had done to

him. In this poem Keats states that sleep is a relief, from turmoil of passion, not just from sexual

yearning, but from the grinding agitation of conscious, change, uncertainty, politics, and

ambition, all of which threatening to overthrow his artistic pose. Keats wrote this poem in hopes

of explaining the different and often unnoticed advantages of sleep. He relates sleep to

imagination in only a metaphor Keats could describe. He explains his whole life in this poem, as

it is a struggle to understand the meaning, which shows that sleep is an escape to life and an

inspiration to his imagination.

John was a surprisingly unique poet and wasn’t afraid to get his paws wet. This was both

a good and bad thing for him. While he was alive almost all his poems got horrible reviews and

the critics disliked them. But as time went on and more and more poets started using Keats’ style

it became obvious that his original works were genius. Now Arguably one of the best romantic

poets in the 18th century, Keats’ brilliant and over-the-top work contributed deeply to the poetic

era of his time, but was not realized until his young life was cut short.