| The Lovers | |
|---|---|
| John Keats
(1795-1821) was a leading figure in the 19th century Romantic movement. In his short career he was a prolific writer of both poetry and letters, the latter to family, friends, and his adored Fanny Brawne. In both he expressed--in the words of Matthew Arnold--a profound "intellectual and spiritual passion" for beauty. His early training was in medicine, but after 1817 he dedicated himself entirely to poetry. In 1818 his first long poem, Endymion, was published. During 1819 and 1820 he wrote some of his best poems including Ode to a Nightingale and Ode on a Grecian Urn, the epic poem Hyperion, and the richly evocative Eve of St. Agnes, all published in a single volume in 1820. He had two brothers, George and Tom, and a sister, Fanny, to whom he was devoted. Keats died of tuberculosis in Rome on February 23, 1821, at the age of 25. He is buried there in the Protestant Cemetery. |
Fanny Brawne
(1800-65) was the eldest of the widowed Mrs. Brawne's three children (she had a brother, Samuel, and sister, Margaret). The family was relatively poor and from humble origins. Fanny's father, like Keat's, had been a stable keeper. He died of consumption when Fanny was 10. Fanny first met Keats in 1818. Her own interest included historical costume, the latest fashions in clothes, and learning to speak and read French and German. After Keat's death she was in mourning for six years. In 1833 she married Louis Lindo, by whom she had three children. She died at the age of 65. |
