On Keats.

The sun is shining here this morning, if somewhat windy. I am going to try and get outside and achieve something today. I will let you know what progress I make, if any, tomorrow. I just thought I ought to mention John Keats because it is the 200^th anniversary of his death today. He died in Rome of tuberculosis aged only 25. I am not going to sit here and pretend that I am an expert on Keats, far from it, but like many people I do know his most famous works, such as Ode To Autumn, Ode To A Nightingale, Bright Star, Endymion and one or two others.

I have also read a bit about his tragic life and his doomed love affair with Fanny Brawne. This is what Wikipedia says about him. ‘John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English Romantic poet. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his works having been in publication for only four years before his death from tuberculosis at the age of 25. Although his poems were not generally well received by critics during his lifetime, his reputation grew after his death, and by the end of the 19th century, he had become one of the most beloved of all English poets. He had a significant influence on a diverse range of poets and writers. Jorge Luis Borges stated that his first encounter with Keats' work was a great experience that he felt all his life. The poetry of Keats is characterised by a style "heavily loaded with sensualities", most notably in the series of odes. This is typical of the Romantic poets, as they aimed to accentuate extreme emotion through an emphasis on natural imagery. Today his poems and letters are some of the most popular and most analysed in English literature. Some of his most acclaimed works are "Ode to a Nightingale", "Sleep and Poetry" and the famous sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer".

Keats died in Rome and was buried in the English cemetery there. He requested that his name should not be on the headstone, but it should say, 'His name is writ in water'. That is because he thought his name would be forgotten and washed away. The opposite is true of course. I like to interpret the meaning as seeing Keats words as throwing a pebble into water and the ripples of his genius have spread out across 200 years and have touched people all over the world..