John Keats, short note for UP PGT English

                                     Personal Life and Background

      

1. Birth Date: John Keats was born on October 31, 1795.
2. Place of Birth: He was born at Moorgate, London, England.
3. Parents: His father was Thomas Keats and his mother was Frances Jennings Keats
   
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4. Father's Occupation: Thomas Keats was a stable keeper (livery stable manager).
5. Tragic Loss of Father: His father died in 1804 after falling from a horse, causing a skull fracture.
6. Loss of Mother: His mother died of tuberculosis (then called consumption) in 1810.
7. Siblings: He was the eldest of four surviving children; his siblings were George, Tom, and Frances Mary (Fanny).
8. Guardian: After his parents' death, he and his siblings were cared for by their grandmother, Alice Jennings.
9. Early Education: He attended John Clarke’s School in Enfield.
10. Mentor at School: Charles Cowden Clarke, the headmaster's son, became his close friend and literary mentor.
11. Medical Apprenticeship: In 1811, he was apprenticed to a surgeon, Thomas Hammond, in Edmonton.
12. Medical Studies: He registered as a medical student at Guy’s Hospital, London, in 1815.
13. Medical License: He received his license to practice as an apothecary (pharmacist/doctor) in 1816.
14. Career Choice: Despite having a medical degree, he abandoned medicine for poetry, a decision he felt driven toward by his inner nature.
15. Financial Status: Keats belonged to a poor/lower-middle-class family, unlike contemporaries like Shelley or Byron.
16. Death Date: He died on February 23, 1821.
17. Age at Death: He was only 25 years old (specifically 25 years, 3 months, and 23 days) when he passed away.
18. Cause of Death: Like his mother and brother Tom, he died of tuberculosis.
19. Final Days: He spent his last months in Rome, Italy, seeking a warmer climate on medical advice.
20. Companion in Rome: He was accompanied to Rome by his artist friend, Joseph Severn.

Literary Career and Style

1. Romantic Generation: Keats is a prominent member of the Second Generation of Romantic Poets.
2. Younger Romantics: Along with Shelley and Byron, he is considered one of the "Younger Romantics".
3. First Poem: His first poem, written in 1814, was "An Imitation of Spenser".
4. Literary Debut: His first published poem was the sonnet "O Solitude," appearing in The Examiner in 1816.
5. The Examiner: This influential magazine was edited by Leigh Hunt, who was Keats's early champion.
6. First Volume: His first collection, titled Poems, was published in 1817.
7. "Three Young Poets": Leigh Hunt’s essay titled "Three Young Poets" featured Keats, Shelley, and Reynolds.
8. Negative Capability: This famous literary concept was introduced by Keats in an 1817 letter to his brothers.
9. Definition of Negative Capability: The capacity to remain in uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts without any "irritable reaching after fact and reason".
10. Exemplar of Negative Capability: Keats identified William Shakespeare as the supreme example of this quality.
11. Egotistical Sublime: Keats used this term to describe William Wordsworth’s self-centered poetic style.
12. Poet of Sensuousness: Keats is renowned for his sensuous imagery that appeals to all five senses: sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell.
13. Matthew Arnold's Praise: Arnold remarked that Keats is "enchantingly and abundantly sensuous".
14. Connection to Shakespeare: Matthew Arnold famously stated, "He is with Shakespeare".
15. Hellenism: Keats is often called a "Hellenistic Poet" due to his deep love for and influence by Greek art, mythology, and culture.
16. Shelley's Remark: P.B. Shelley once said, "Keats was a Greek".
17. Pictorial Quality: His poetry is noted for being pictorial, using words to create vivid mental "paintings" for the reader.
18. The Principle of Beauty: In a letter, Keats wrote, "I have loved the principle of beauty in all things".
19. Nature vs. Art: His work often explores the tension between the transience of human life and the permanence of art.
20. Camelion Poet: Keats believed the poet has no fixed identity but takes on the identity of whatever they are describing.

Major Works - Endymion and Hyperion

1. Endymion Publication: This long narrative poem was published in 1818.
2. Endymion Opening Line: "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever".
3. Endymion Dedication: It was dedicated to the memory of the young poet Thomas Chatterton.
4. Endymion Form: It is written in Heroic Couplets (Iambic Pentameter).
5. Endymion Structure: The poem is divided into four books, totaling approximately 4,000 lines.
6. Endymion Source: Based on the Greek myth of the moon goddess (Cynthia/Selene) and the shepherd Endymion.
7. Hyperion (1818): An unfinished epic poem written in blank verse.
8. Hyperion Influence: Strongly influenced by John Milton’s Paradise Lost.

9. Reason for Abandoning Hyperion: Keats felt it was "too Miltonic" and lacked his own voice.

10. The Fall of Hyperion: A revised, more philosophical version of the epic, written as a dream vision.

The Great Odes of 1819

1. "Year of Great Odes": 1819 is considered Keats's "Annus Mirabilis" or most productive year.
2. Total Major Odes: He wrote six major odes in 1819.
3. List of Odes: Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode on Melancholy, Ode to Psyche, Ode on Indolence, and To Autumn.

4. Ode on a Grecian Urn Structure: Consists of five stanzas of ten lines each.
5. Ode on a Grecian Urn Famous Quote: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know".

6. Ekphrasis: This ode is a prime example of Ekphrasis, the verbal description of a visual work of art.
7. "Sylvan Historian": Keats addresses the urn as a "Sylvan historian" who can express a flowery tale better than poetry.
8. "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter": A famous line from Grecian Urn emphasizing the power of imagination.

9. Ode to a Nightingale Context: Written in the garden of Charles Brown after the death of his brother Tom.
10. Ode to a Nightingale Opening: "My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains / My sense".

11. "Immortal Bird": In Nightingale, Keats calls the bird an "immortal Bird" because its song remains the same through generations.

12. To Autumn Significance: Often considered the most perfect and objective of his odes.
13. To Autumn Opening: "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness".
14. Ode on Melancholy: Explores the idea that joy and sorrow are inseparable.
15. Ode to Psyche: Notable for being the first of the 1819 odes.
16. Ode on Indolence: Inspired by a vision of three figures: Love, Ambition, and Poesy.

Narrative Poems and Ballads

1. La Belle Dame Sans Merci (1819): A literary ballad depicting a knight enthralled by a mysterious lady.
2. La Belle Dame Theme: Reflects Keats's own unrequited or painful love for Fanny Brawne.
3. Isabella, or the Pot of Basil: Based on a story from Boccaccio’s Decameron; written in Ottava Rima.
4. The Eve of St. Agnes: A lush, romantic narrative written in Spenserian Stanzas.
5. The Eve of St. Agnes Characters: Features the lovers Porphyro and Madeline.
6. Lamia: A narrative poem about a serpent-woman who transforms into a beautiful lady.
7. Lamia Form: Written in Heroic Couplets, influenced by Dryden.

Critical Attacks and "The Cockney School"

1. Cockney School of Poetry: A derogatory term coined by John Gibson Lockhart (writing as 'Z').
2. Target of the Term: It was aimed at Leigh Hunt, Keats, and William Hazlitt.
3. Reason for the Attack: Critics attacked them for their low-class backgrounds and lack of university education.

4. Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine: One of the primary journals that brutally criticized Keats.
5. The Quarterly Review: Another journal (specifically critic John Wilson Croker) that savaged Endymion.

6. "Back to the shop": Lockhart famously told Keats to leave poetry and go "back to the shop" (referring to his medical background).
7. Shelley's View on the Criticism: Shelley believed these harsh reviews shortened Keats's life, an idea expressed in his poem Adonais.

Relationships and Love

1. Fanny Brawne: The love of Keats's life, to whom he was engaged in 1819.
2. "Love is my religion": A famous line from a letter Keats wrote to Fanny Brawne.
3. Unfulfilled Love: Due to his poverty and failing health, he was never able to marry her.
4. Isabella Jones: Another woman with whom Keats had a brief, influential relationship earlier in 1817.
5. "Bright Star": This famous sonnet was long associated with Fanny Brawne, though some believe it was originally for Isabella Jones.

Legacy and Epitaph

1. Protestant Cemetery: Keats is buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome.
2. Epitaph: At his request, his gravestone reads: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water".
3. Meaning of the Epitaph: It reflects his feeling of failure and his fear that he would not be remembered.

4. Adonais: A famous pastoral elegy written by P.B. Shelley to mourn Keats’s death.

5. Posthumous Fame: Keats received very little praise during his life but became one of the most beloved poets after his death.
6. Oscar Wilde's Tribute: Wilde referred to Keats’s grave as a "holy place".
7. Influence on Pre-Raphaelites: His detailed, sensuous style deeply influenced later Victorian painters and poets.
8. Byron's Remark: Lord Byron initially mocked Keats but later recognized his talent after his death.
9. Sensation vs. Thought: Keats famously exclaimed, "O for a life of Sensations rather than of Thoughts!".
10. "The Poetry of Earth": A line from his famous sonnet "On the Grasshopper and Cricket".
11. "Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold": The opening line of "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer".
12. Chapman’s Homer: This sonnet was written after Keats stayed up all night reading George Chapman’s translation of Homer with Cowden Clarke.
13. Regular Odes: Keats’s odes are often classified as "Regular Odes" or Pindaric in their own unique structure.
14. "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever": This remains perhaps his most quoted line in English literature.
15. The Camelion Poet: He believed a poet should have no "self" but should be a bridge for the reader to experience the subject.