John Keats

Introduction & Top Questions
Youth
Early works
Personal crisis
The year 1819
Last years
Letters
Reputation

Quotes References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

Explore John Keats's life through a dramatization penned by Archibald MacLeish and narrated by James Mason

At a Glance

John Keats summary

Quizzes

Illustration of "The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, 1879. poem; poetry

A Study of Poetry

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

Poetry: First Lines

"Milton Dictating to His Daughters" oil on canvas by Henry Fuseli, 1793; in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Who Wrote That? (Part 3) Quiz

Related Questions

How did Charles Cowden Clarke encourage John Keats’s literary interests?
How did John Keats become part of Leigh Hunt’s literary circle?
How did John Keats react to negative reviews of Endymion?
How did John Keats’s reputation change after his death?
How did John Milton’s Paradise Lost influence Hyperion?
How did critics respond to John Keats’s early poems?
How does “Ode on Melancholy” connect sadness with happiness?
How does “Ode to a Nightingale” contrast art with human suffering?
How is “The Eve of St. Agnes” structured?
How old was John Keats when he died?
What Greek myth is retold in John Keats’s Endymion?
What Romantic theme does Endymion explore?
What are the major themes of John Keats’s odes?
What does “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” mean in “Ode on a Grecian Urn”?
What does the nightingale represent in “Ode to a Nightingale”?
What happened to John Keats’s brother Tom?
What happened to John Keats’s parents during his childhood?
What happens in John Keats’s “The Eve of St. Agnes”?
What illness caused John Keats’s death?
What inspired John Keats to write “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”?
What scene does John Keats describe in “Ode on a Grecian Urn”?
What was John Keats’s childhood like?
What was John Keats’s first published book?
When and where was John Keats born?
When did John Keats become engaged to Fanny Brawne?
When was John Keats’s first book Poems published?
Where did John Keats die?
Where did John Keats find the story for “Lamia”?
Where did John Keats live after his mother’s second marriage ended?
Which Victorian writers and artists were influenced by John Keats?
Which major poems did John Keats write in 1819?
Which school did John Keats attend in Enfield?
Who cared for John Keats during his final illness in Rome?
Who was Fanny Brawne?
Who were John Keats’s siblings?
Why are John Keats’s letters important to readers and scholars?
Why could John Keats and Fanny Brawne not have a normal relationship?
Why did John Keats train to become a surgeon?
Why did John Keats travel to Rome in 1820?
Why is “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” important in John Keats’s career?
Why was John Keats dissatisfied with Endymion?
Why is John Keats important?
What was John Keats’s childhood like?
What was John Keats’s occupation?
What did John Keats write?
Why did Anne Brontë use a male pseudonym?
What are Gerard Manley Hopkins’ most famous poems?
What influenced Gerard Manley Hopkins’ conversion to Roman Catholicism?
What is sprung rhythm?
How many books did Emily Brontë write?
Did Emily Brontë marry?

Literature Poetry Poets A-K

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External Websites

Poetry Foundation - Biography of John Keats
Journal of English Language and Literature - Destruction of Death by never dying spirit of Poetrt Â– An Exploration of John Keats' Poetic Philosophy (PDF)
Poets.org - John Keats
History Today - The Romantic Reputation of John Keats
Official Site of The Keats Foundation
Humanities LibreTexts - John Keats (1795Â–1821)
PBS NewsHour - In poet John KeatsÂ’ letters, a man full of life just before he died
CBC Radio - John Keats, the ultimate Romantic poet: an intriguing new take on his life from Lucasta Miller
The Poetry Archive - John Keats
The Criterion: An International Journal in English - Negative Capability: Theory and Practice in the Poetry of John Keats (PDF)
The Victorian Web - John Keats (1795 - 1821)

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

John Keats - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

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

John Keats

British poet

Written by

Graham Goulder Hough

Professor of English, University of Cambridge, 1966–75; Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge, 1964–75. Author of The Romantic Poets and others.

Graham Goulder Hough

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Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

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Last updated

Oct. 27, 2026 •History

John Keats (born October 31, 1795, London, England—died February 23, 1821, Rome, Papal States [Italy]) was an English Romantic lyric poet who devoted his short life to the perfection of a poetry marked by vivid imagery, great sensuous appeal, and an attempt to express a philosophy through classical legend. The son of a livery-stable manager, John Keats received relatively little formal education. His father died in 1804, and his mother remarried almost immediately. Throughout his...

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