How did John Keats become part of Leigh Hunt’s literary circle?

John Keats became part of Leigh Hunt’s literary circle through the introduction of his friend Charles Cowden Clarke. Clarke, who had previously introduced the young poet to the works of Edmund Spenser and other Elizabethans, facilitated the connection to the journalist and poet Leigh Hunt.1

Once integrated into this circle, Keats formed friendships with other notable figures, including the poet John Hamilton Reynolds and the painter Benjamin Haydon. Hunt’s influence on Keats was significant, as the younger poet derived from him a delight in color, imaginative sensual experience, and an introduction to Italian literature. Keats’s early work, including his first volume of Poems (1817), was written largely under this "Huntian" influence, characterized by a relaxed style and the use of a loose form of the heroic couplet. Hunt also became a staunch defender of Keats’s work in his journal, the Examiner, supporting him against contemporary critics.12