John Keats (1795–1821) was one of the leading figures of the second generation of English Romantic poets, alongside Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron. Though his literary career was brief—spanning only about six years—Keats produced a body of work that has become a cornerstone of English poetry, celebrated for its sensuous imagery, emotional depth, and philosophical insight.
Born in London to a modest family, Keats faced hardship early in life, losing both parents while still young. He initially trained as a surgeon but abandoned medicine to pursue poetry, a decision that met with little initial success or recognition. Many of his contemporaries criticized his work harshly, yet he remained devoted to his art, developing a unique poetic voice.
Keats is best known for his odes, written in 1819, which include Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode on Melancholy, and To Autumn. These poems explore themes of beauty, transience, nature, and the tension between the ideal and the real. His famous concept of “Negative Capability”—the ability to accept uncertainty and doubt without the irritable reaching after fact and reason—reflects his philosophical maturity.
In Ode on a Grecian Urn, Keats meditates on the timeless beauty of art, famously concluding, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty.” To Autumn, often considered his most perfect poem, celebrates the rich, mellow abundance of the season while subtly acknowledging the inevitability of decay and death.
Tragically, Keats died of tuberculosis at the age of 25 in Rome. At the time of his death, he believed his name would be “writ in water,” but posterity has proven otherwise.
Today, Keats is regarded as a master of lyrical poetry, and his work continues to inspire readers with its emotional intensity and exquisite craftsmanship.
