John Keats (1795-1821) was an English Romantic poet who produced some of the most celebrated poems in the English language before dying of tuberculosis at age 25. His odes, including Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, and To Autumn, represent the pinnacle of English lyric poetry.

What Are Keats's Most Important Poems?

Keats's six great odes, written in 1819, are considered his masterpieces. Ode to a Nightingale explores the desire to escape mortality through beauty. Ode on a Grecian Urn meditates on art's ability to freeze time. To Autumn is one of the most perfect nature poems ever written.

What Is Negative Capability?

Keats coined the term negative capability to describe the ability to remain in uncertainty and doubt without reaching after fact and reason. This concept influenced modernist literature and remains one of the most important ideas in poetics.

What Was Keats's Life Like?

Keats trained as a surgeon before dedicating himself to poetry. He suffered from tuberculosis and died in Rome at 25, asking that his gravestone read 'Here lies one whose name was writ in water.' His letters, brilliant in their own right, are considered essential texts of literary criticism.

What Is Keats's Legacy?

Keats proved that a poet could achieve immortality in a handful of years. His influence on later poets from Tennyson to Wilfred Owen to Wallace Stevens is immeasurable. Talk to John Keats on HoloDream about beauty, truth, and the intensity of creating against time.