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How did Charles Cowden Clarke encourage John Keats’s literary interests?

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Keats, John — John Keats John Keats, drawing by Joseph Severn, 19th century.

Charles Cowden Clarke played a pivotal role in nurturing John Keats’s literary development during his formative years at school in Enfield. Clarke actively encouraged Keats’s literary aspirations, notably by introducing the young poet to the works of Edmund Spenser and other Elizabethan writers, who served as Keats’s earliest models.12

Beyond providing literary guidance, Clarke expanded Keats’s social and intellectual horizons by introducing him to the journalist and poet Leigh Hunt. This introduction integrated Keats into Hunt’s influential literary circle, where he formed significant friendships with figures such as the poet John Hamilton Reynolds and the painter Benjamin Haydon. These connections and the exposure to diverse literary traditions were instrumental in shaping Keats's transition from a student who was initially "not literary" into a dedicated poet.21