Cultural Keats
Hello friends and quarantine sufferers. I hope you’re well and reading more books with this time on your hands.
I’m sure most, if not all, of you have heard of John Keats’ poetry. If like me you were subjected to Keats in school with the poem, To Autumn, or you stumbled across The Eve of St. Agnes one summer day, regardless, Keats has become embedded in modern literary culture.
I’ll be focusing on his poetry between the years of 1818-1820 for reasons which I’ll get to later, but for now, let's dive a little deeper into Keats and why I want to bring him into focus.
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| One of Keats' quotes adorning his home. |
Keats himself was influenced by other texts; notably Shakespeare, as seen in the poem When I have Fears, written in January 1818.
‘When I have fears that I may cease to be,
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain…’ (Gittings, Anstey. pp39)
The rhyme scheme (ababcdcdefefgg) reflects Shakespeare’s sonnet beginning with ‘when I have seen by time’s fell hand defaced’ and takes on similar imagery in displaying Keats’ fears of time and time that is wasted. Quite a fitting poem given the current global circumstance, don’t you think?
Keats was also a part of the Romantic movement of Literature, which included well-known names such as Lord Byron, Wordsworth, and arguably William Blake, and gave us many literary cliches known today.
But Keats wasn’t just inspired by other writers. Ode to a Nightingale is one such poem we can take an example from, as a close friend of Keats, ‘Charles Brown suggested that this poem, written...in May 1819, was inspired by the song of a nightingale in Wentworth Place, London.’ (Gittings, Anstey. pp186)
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| As you can see my friends and I were having a great time. |
It was between 1818-1820 that Keats lived in Wentworth Place and I was lucky enough to visit in March 2020 for my degree - I highly recommend visiting as it is an interesting day for any book lover.
Originally a semi-detached villa, Wentworth was home to Charles Wentworth Dilke and family, and Charles Brown who housed Keats as a lodger. Located in Hampstead, London, the museum showcases the manuscripts and artefacts of Keats - creepily, also including his DeathMask - and holds events throughout the year (pandemics permitting) such as poetry performances and family fun days. I’ll attach the website link at the end of this post.
I want to push Keats as ‘His poetry is often taken to embody a desire to escape from the harsh and unforgiving real world, into an imaginary realm’ (Everest. pp1-14) and given everything going on in the world right now, I hope Keats will be able to offer a little light. Not to mention, the house itself is embedded in Hampstead history and is a great place for those looking to explore literary London.
Bibliography
- Gittings, Robert. Anstey, Sandra. “Keats: Selected Poems and Letters”, pp39-186, Heineman Poetry Bookshelf, 1995, Heineman Educational Publishers.
- Everest, Kelvin. “Why Read Keats” John Keats. Liverpool University Press, 2002, pp. 1-14. JSTOR. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv5rf2vn.6
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