John KeatsEssay Preview: John KeatsReport this essayJohn KeatsJohn Keats was born October 31, 1795 in London England to Frances Jennings and Thomas Keats. He was the first of five children. His mothers parents, John and Alice Jennings, were rather well-off and after his parents were married they allowed his father to manage the livery business. In the summer of 1803 John and his brother were sent to board at the John Clarkes school in Enfield, close to his grandparents house. This small school had a liberal, progressive outlook and a progressive curriculum more modern than the larger, more prestigious schools. Clarkes school was known for its family atmosphere. Keats developed an interest in classics and history which would stay with him throughout his short life. Keats befriended the headmasters son, Charles Cowden Clarke, whom became a very important influence, mentor and friend. He is the one who introduced Keats to Renaissance literature. Keats is described as a volatile character “always in extremes”, given to indolence and fighting. Keats father died when he was 8 years old, after a fall from his horse.
At 13, he began to focus his energy towards reading and studying, He won his first academic prize in 1809. When he was 14 his mother passed away from tuberculosis. Eventually Keats left the Clarkes school in the summer of 1811 to enter an apprenticeship with an Edmonton surgeon and apothecary named Thomas Hammond, although he had already formed a keen taste for poetry, classical mythology, and tales of history and romance. Keatss training took up increasing amounts of his writing time and he felt increasingly ambivalent about his medical career. He felt presented with a stark choice. Keatss first surviving poem, An Imitation of Spenser, had been written in 1814, when Keats was 19. Now, strongly drawn by ambition, inspired by fellow poet, Leigh Hunt, and stressed by family financial crises, he suffered periods of depression. His brother George wrote that John “feared that he should never be a poet, & if he was not he would destroy himself.” In 1816, Keats received his apothecarys license which made him eligible to practice as an apothecary, physician, and surgeon, but before the end of the year he announced to his guardian that he had resolved to be a poet, not a surgeon. Although Johns short life was full of many hardships and difficulties, Keats was able to go on with his life and cage up his emotions. When he wrote, Keats put his entire mood into his work. His emotions can be traced throughout his poetry, which adds true passion to his works. Using this style, Keats wrote some of the best literary works ever created.
Some of Keats major works were written in May of 1819, including “ode to a nightingale,” “ode to a Grecian urn,” and “ode on Melancholy.” Keats was famous for writing odes. An ode is an elaborately structured poem praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. Keats wrote in the Romanticism period when enlightenment was happening and many people stressed personal emotion, free play of the imagination, and freedom from rules of form. Keats did just that. His works are all tied into his life experiences. Keats often wrote about his traumatic childhood and the loves he had encountered along the way. Since Keats life was centered with major conflicts whether it was internal or external, it often showed in his poetry. Many of his poems are against the norm in this period of time, and often deal with life versus death, or the ideal versus the real.
Lorenca Cascades (1809-1915)
The “Lorenca Cascades” – poems that were published by Cascades during the “American Revolution” of 1830 – was first published in 1841. In 1846 and its “American-Revival” collection was a compilation of poems written at Cascades. It went on to include other poems and essays inspired by various themes, and its original publisher was a major influence on the American style of writing and poetry.
Leo L. Grombe (1849-1914), founder of the Loh-Poglorn Ligurian Linguists Association. (Bundemann) The Cascades
The Cascades.com
(February 28, 1768)
This publication was one of the first of many to include in the Cascades (now named The Cascades Times)..A century ago when Keats first described his relationship with his parents, this work came to define his life as a poet. Keats later described how that life changed while he was alive and wrote (1932).
Trying to live what Keats calls the “American Dream,” his poem can inspire him to create poetry that resonates in others with the values he hopes to share in his work. It was not only a life-changing moment for him and his partner, but a positive one for his young mother.
This poem is one of the few that still survives and still has a life of lasting influence.
Telling the story of his childhood, writing “I don’t need time to see my children!”
The poem is one of the most controversial in Keats’ work because it includes a number of problematic and sometimes disturbing passages which he says he has “never uttered from a source outside of the Cascades Bible.”
Written by John M. Hough in 1853.
Leo L. Grombe’s poem “I don’t need time to see my children!”